We Spend Far Too Much Time in the Hospital Wing
by TheEndangeredGinger
Summary: James bolted upright with a shout and leaped onto Sirius's bed who yelled in agony because James had driven his elbow into his stomach. Peter fell off his bed and started screaming like a girl. Remus looked over at a clock near his bed, and then he sat up like a zombie; Brandishing a textbook in one hand and his wand in the other he yelled, "YOU TOSSERS! It's five in the morning!"
1. Chapter 1- Teaser

**Author's Note:**

**Welcome to my First Story on Fanfiction!**

***cricket sounds***

**Okay! I posted this story upon the coercing of my best friend. I've been working on this for a few months and I am moderately okay with how it has turned out. It just started as a story I was writing in a car trip to try to keep myself from getting too bored. and then I just kept going. **

**So I became recently obsessed with the Google Translate Version of Let it Go (And if you have not yet seen it, I highly recommend you do) (Siriusly go.) **

**Anyway I put my fanfic through 10 layers of google translate and I put the translated version below.**

**The first selection is the story before translating and the one after is the new and improved and, in my not so humble opinion, beautiful piece of literature. **

**Enjoy!**

**Oh! And Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or anything that was created by Ms. Rowling's lovely hands. **

Chapter 1: (Original Teaser Chapter)

Mercy and Oakley were sitting in Muggle Studies. Mercy was a muggleborn, and having no magical lineage, the course was a breeze. Oakley was admittedly a pure blood but just too lazy to take notes. Professor Burbage was certainly enthusiastic about the subject but neither Mercy nor Oakley found plugging in a lamp as super exciting as Burbage seemed to.

Mercy brushed her red hair out of her face and glanced at her wrist to see if she had a hair tie, but no luck. She looked down at the parchment that Oakley had pushed into her side of the desk.

**Do you think we could get away with skiving off C.O.M.C. today? I'm really not in the mood to lose a limb to whatever monstrosity the lunatic wants to expose us to today. **

Mercedes smiled and shook her head. There was no way that she was skipping the class two times in a row; Professor Kettleburn might start thinking they were doing it on purpose.

_No way. If I'm going to get a detention I want it to be for doing something worthwhile. Do you want to sneak into the library after dinner?_

Oakley's face contorted in annoyance at Mercy's response. Care of Magical Creatures and then the library? Mercy was obviously trying to kill her.

**Oh come ooooonn! The library? Whyyyy!?**

_I was actually thinking about stirring up some trouble, and seeing as you're bored I thought you could help me out. _

**Ooh, sounds intriguing, what sort of trouble, darling?**

_Oh, you'll see dear._

**Fine, but you have to tell me at lunch. And Charlie has to come too. **

Mercedes glanced at Charlie who was sitting across the aisle. He was diligently taking notes, notes that Oakley was sure to steal and make a magical copy of later. Crumbling up piece of parchment and taking aim, Mercy discretely threw it at Charlie's head while Professor Burbage was writing on the chalkboard.

The paper hit the mark and bounced off the side of Charlie's face but then onto his desk. Charlie looked over and raised his eyebrows. Mercy mimed for him to unfold the paper. He rolled his eyes but did it nonetheless. Mercy pulled out her wand and muttered a spell while pointing the tip of her wand at first the parchment on her and Oakley's table and then at the now unfolded but still crumpled paper on Charlie's. Now they could communicate with Charlie without having to pass the paper across the aisle and risk the discovery and eventual wrath of Burbage.

Charlie sighed and his eyes darted back and forth across page. And then he picked up his quill.

_Honestly, guys? _

Oakley grinned.

**You don't have plans. Might as well.**

_Pleeeeeeeeaaaaaaasssssse?_

Charlie looked between the pleading faces of his two best friends and sighed.

… _Fine after dinner, but you guys can't skip Care of Magical Creatures without me again. _

_We are NOT skipping today._

"Oh come ooooonn!" Oakley said out-loud.

"Miss Milova, please pay attention"

"Sorry, Professor"

**Chapter 1 (Brought to you by Google Translate) **

Oakley general studies . Mercy General - Yes , it is easy to support, unlit different generations. Oakley is actually true , but I was too lazy to write . Professor Burbage definitely excited about learning , but in this context, Oakley beermat's powers seem to have no mercy or so interesting .

Mercy facial hair , hair care and tie , but unfortunately , I have not seen his wristwatch. We panels, Oakley visible to the server.

**I feel very bad , and her legs COMC today's have seen today , which might indicate a problem that I am not affiliated bent .**

Mercedes smiled and shook her head . They are two times in a row , start to heat the water , jump in class to think about the purpose of the teacher navels .

_Service . You can get online, I'd go with something that is of value . After dinner in the library you want to capture ?_

Oakley mercy of the opposition to respond to the bonds. Taking care of magical creatures , library ? Clearly, Mercy tries to kill him.

**Any ooOOOooh ! Library, WHYYYY ?**

_I can help you think about the treatment of the idea , but I was never bored._

**Oh, the pain , the child all that interesting?**

_Oh, dear ._

**Ah, but I have to say, lunch. Charlie will be.**

Mercedes hallway Charlie , sitting in his eyes. After time to work with Oakley show cactus was stolen unmakers was magical gesture . Information about slavery and the board at the mercy of teachers writing on the face Beermat Charlie fell in secret .

The paper identifies the desktop, and then his face , Charlie , however , is much more back . Charlie looked at me and raised eyebrows. Coming character designed to mimic . After all, he rolled his eyes for a while. Pole tip blessing volcano skin uncurl indicates Oakley , mumbled , and then put on the list now , but Charlie still crumpled . Beermat potential risk to the hallway and talk to Charlie.

Charlie sighed and his eyes all the time diachylon . He picked up a pen.

_Really, people ?_

Oakley and smiled .

**There is no need for change . Well, you are.**

_Pleeeeeeeeaaaaaaasssssse ?_

Charlie brought two friends of Understanding and sighed .

_Well ... after dinner , but you can do without my navigation magical creatures._

_Jade hid tibia._

"Oh, ooOOOooh " Oakley said aloud.

"Miss Milova , please pay attention. "

" Sorry , Professor "

**Author's Note**

**Alright, I will be putting this whole story through Google translate and I will post it as soon as I get further through the original, Review please!**


	2. Chapter 2- The Danger of Fire Crabs

**Author's Note**

**_Hi… Well, I just put up the first Chapter as a teaser to see if I could perhaps spark some interest. The Google Translate Version will be released soon. But I won't do that until I get a little further with this story. For the remainder of this story, I will post the original Version here. _**

**_I write this story is as a series of snapshots. Sometimes there are some odd skips in time, and I guess that's kind of just how I write… I guess. I have 20 Chapters written, and I will release the next one soon._**

**_Unfortunately, I'm going to need some help from you guys. I will post the next Chapter only if someone is legitimately showing interest._**

**_For me to post the next Chapter, I would like to have at least one review. Reviews help me out, I can try to fix things and it will make me a better writer… if you wanna flame me, go for it. I'm a big girl, I can handle it. _**

**_Every Tuesday, I will post a new Chapter as long as I have one review. And if I start getting 10 reviews before the next Tuesday, I will post earlier. _**

**Here's some Notes that probably would have been necessary for deeper understanding of the last chapter:**

Oakley's Writing- **OAKLEY!**

Mercy's Writing- _Mercy ;)_

Charlie's Writing- _Charlie…_

**Also- Disclaimer: **I am obviously not J.K. Rowling, my writing doesn't hold a candle to hers and I don't own Harry Potter: the world or the characters… And even if I did, I wouldn't change anything that happened in the books. Siriusly.

Well, let's get on with the story!

**Chapter 2- The Danger of Fire Crabs**

Oakley got out of the Hospital Wing shortly after dinner had started and went down to eat rubbing her heavily bandaged left arm gingerly. She walked through the doors to the Great Hall and looked for the distinct red hair of Mercy at the Gryffindor table. Spotting it toward the middle and seeing Charlie sitting right next to her and an empty spot across from them, Oakley headed toward them.

"Oi, Oakley! How's your arm?"

Oakley glanced toward the source of the voice; a group of four boys sitting at the Gryffindor table looked in her direction. She saw the Marauders, a group of trouble making boys in their year. Even though they were all fourth years, the marauders sometimes could act very immaturely causing most people to be quite weary of their presence.

"Fine, I suppose. Madam Pomfrey patched me up pretty well."

"That's good" Remus Lupin, the original speaker said thoughtfully. He looked wiped and had dark circles under his rich chocolate colored eyes. His brown sandy colored hair was a little messier than usual. Remus's face was marred by an odd scar, which looked strangely like a claw mark; 3 scratches stretched jaggedly from right beneath his left eye to the side of his face below his right ear.

Remus was a little different than his companions. He was definitely less childish, and was quiet most of the time. He could often be found reading. Oakley eyes flicked over his companions. Sirius Black, a rather attractive dark haired boy was flirting outrageously with the girl sitting next to him, winking his grey eyes and not paying attention to anything going on around him other than her. The girl blushed furiously and they kept talking. The boy sitting on one side Remus was Peter Pettigrew and he was shoveling food in his mouth like he wasn't going eat for a week. His eyes, blue and on the watery side, were darting back and forth between Sirius and the girl.

Oakley gave Remus a smile and then turned to his distinctly messy black-haired friend on the other side of Remus. "Hey James, do you know when Quidditch tryouts are going to be?"

James Potter was a chaser for the Gryffindor Quidditch team and a really good one at that. The Gryffindor team had been frightfully decent last year except their seeker had been physically incapable of catching the snitch and had only remained on the team because she was dating the captain. They had both graduated the previous year leaving vacancies in the keeping and seeking positions. One of the chasers and beaters had graduated as well. So Gryffindor was in dire need of new players. James pushed his round frame glasses up the bridge of his nose and with a twinkle in his hazel eyes said, "Yeah, they're on Thursday. Are you trying out this year? What position?"

"Oh, I was thinking about trying out for keeper, but I'm not sure what condition my arm's going to be in for tryouts. That only gives me two days to get better. I think Mercy is going for seeker."

"Wicked. I guess I'll see you then." He ruffled his hair, his eyes turning to Lily Evans, a red-head who James had a soft-spot for. Oakley took this as an ideal moment to take her leave.

"See you guys later."

Oakley continued down the table and sat down across from Charlie and Mercy, who appeared to be arguing about something. Mercy looked a little flustered and upset.

"Oaks! How are you? Are you alright? How bad was it? Is there anything that we can do? I'm so sorry! I should have come over and helped you. Why am I such an idiot? Do you want me to—"

"Mercy! Cool your jets. I'm fine. I've just made a bit of a fool of myself."

"A bit of a fool? Understatement alert," said Charlie after swallowing a huge mouthful of mashed potatoes. Mercy put her face on the table. "Anyway, what on God's green earth would possess you to poke a sapphire fire crab with a stick?"

"I dunno… I was just trying to see if it was awake alright?"

"Why would you poke it on the side its blaster is on?" Mercy asked without lifting her head.

"Alright, alright, I know that was kind of stupid… but I got this wicked scar on my arm. I might name it Charizard"

Charlie choked on his pumpkin juice and Mercy let out a dry chuckle with her face still on the table.

"Charizard it is. Anyway, I was talking to James and he said Quidditch try-outs are Thursday. So we are trying out, right?"

Charlie shook his head. "Well I'm not. We have so much homework and I don't want to fall behind."

Oakley rolled her eyes. "Where's your Gryffindor sense of adventure? Hey Merce, are you in?"

Mercy raised her head off the table, rubbing her eyes. "Yeah, of course. Do you want to go on a practice flight tomorrow after dinner?"

Oakley looked at her arm and said, "Yeah, I want some time to get used to favoring my right over my left. How do you people do this?"

"Well we can't all be ambidextrous," Charlie said matter-of-factly.

"Well you know me. I'd give my left arm to be ambidextrous." Mercy said with the cheesiest grin on her face.

Oakley threw the peas on her plate at Mercy.

"Anyway Oaks, do you want to meet me in the library later to finish the History of Magic Essay? Mercy cranked hers out before dinner, but I'm not quite done yet." Charlie said seriously.

"Yeah, but I'm going to finish eating first and then I have to go to Madam Pomfrey again so she can check on Charizard." Said Oakley as she put some more food on her plate.

Mercy started giggling. "Don't you mean Nurse Joy?" Oakley threw more peas.

"Okay, Okay. I'll stop. Anyway, I'll lend you guys my essay in case you want to gather some inspiration from it. But I think I'm going to go veg in the common room for a while. It's been a looooooooong day. See you guys later!" Mercy pulled out her essay handed it to Charlie and then walked out the doors of the great hall.

"You know what Charlie? I'll meet you in the library in half an hour. You don't have to wait on me to finish eating."

"Yeah, I'll be at the table in the back. And do us both a favor and don't piss Madam Pince off before we finish. Okay?" Charlie said as he got up from the table.

Oakley stretched her good arm over her head and said. "I will make no such promises."

"Alright, Oaks. I'll see you in a few. Don't push yourself to hard."

Oakley stuck her tongue out at him.

Charlie smirked and walked out of the hall shaking his head.

**Author's Note**

_**I know Pokémon wasn't around in this era… Just small jokes riddled around to make me happy.**_

_**Do me a favor? And Review? Puh-leeeease?**_


	3. Chapter 3- What NOT to do in the Library

**Author's Note**

_**When I first started writing the story, I had this set so Charlie, Oakley, Mercy, and the Marauders were in 3**__**rd**__** year but since then I decided to bump up the story a year put them all at 4**__**th**__** year instead. There are some curriculum inconsistencies in this chapter but hopefully you good people will do me a small favor and overlook them. Please?**_

_**So I did get one review (yay!) but it was from a guest so I guess I'll just answer you here. **_

_**Hmm, that would be interesting, putting Oakley, Mercy, and Charlie in the Pokémon universe. Oakley could be a criminal! And Charlie could be a musician and Mercy could be a coordinating master who has lost her touch. That would be fun to write. When I finish up this one maybe I'll look at that. Oh and I will try to work on the romance, but it will probably slightly inept and awkward because they are still at that awkward transition between kid and adult so they really don't know what they're doing.**_

_**I did notice one person is following my story. Thank you soooooooooo much **_ _** ! **_

_**Another side note. I might start updating on Fridays too, just because I really don't have anything better to do :/**_

_**Here's my necessary disclaimer: **__I don't own Harry Potter. I wish I could be a writing genius and come up with something as cool but instead I spend my day writing fanfiction… so yeah. _

_**Ahem, So on with the Story!**_

**Chapter 3- What **_**NOT **_**to do in the Library**

Charlie sat at a table in the back of the library finishing up an essay on Witch Burnings for History of Magic. He read over Mercy's essay quickly to help him find a strong way to wrap up his paper.

_On the off chance that Muggles were able to identify a real witch or wizard, attempting to burn them was utterly pointless because a simple Freezing Charm would easily protect them from any harm. This is excluding any cases that the witch or wizard in question was stripped of his or her wand and being unable to defend against the flames. In times such as this, it was fortunate for that person to be with another witch or wizard to help dig them out of trouble. It was quite important for safety in numbers and furthermore being discrete. _

Charlie rubbed his quill underneath his chin. How Mercy was able to remember all this stuff without at least looking at her notes or the text book was beyond him.

He had just put the finishing touches on his essay when Oakley sat down at the table next to him and put her bag on the table. "So, what's the sitch?" She asked.

Charlie put his essay in his bag and pulled out his notes from Muggle Studies. "You are an hour late," he said with an exasperated look.

Oakley shrugged it off. "I had to go back to the hospital wing so Madam Pomfrey could put more paste on the burn. Sadly, she said that it won't scar so I had to say good bye to Charizard. It was quite sad actually."

Charlie smiled and shook his head.

"Why are you looking at your Muggle Studies notes?" Oakley asked, pulling out her partially completed essay, ink, and a quill. She grabbed Mercy's essay and started to read it over.

"I think Professor Burbage is hinting at the test on electricity being soon and I want to make sure that I have the material down."

Oakley shot Charlie the oh-my-gosh-you-are-such-an-overachiever-look and pulling out her wand, muttered a spell which made two identical copies of Charlie's thorough notes, one for her, and one for Mercy.

Charlie shot Oakley the oh-my-gosh-you-are-such-a-lazy-bum-look. "You know, one of these days, I think I might not take notes just to see you and Mercy struggle to take your own."

"You couldn't do that to Mercy. Besides she takes notes in like everything except that class. You know the whole she is a muggleborn thing and therefore can easily get through." Oakley said, frowning at the parchment in front of her.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Charlie stopped looking at his notes and stared at Oakley in confusion.

"Dude, Muggleborns _always_ have an easy time in-" but she was quickly interrupted.

"No not that, I meant when you said I couldn't do that to Mercy"

Oakley made eye-contact. "Come on, I don't live under a rock. I've seen the way you look at her. I mean, it's obvious you like her."

Charlie's jaw dropped and he turned bright red. He sputtered, "Wha-! That's- That's not… I mean, I do not!"

"Charlie's got a wee little crush!" Oakley's eyes were twinkling mischievously.

Charlie glared, "Cut it out. I do not"

"Do so!"

"Do not!"

"Do so!"

"Do not!"

"Do so!"

"DO NOT!" Charlie said a little too loudly. He slammed his hands on the table and stood up glaring down at Oakley. Oakley raised her eyebrows and smirked at him.

"Mr. Amber! Is there some sort of problem?" Madam Pince peered with her signature death stare beyond the bookshelf.

Charlie jumped but regaining a little bit of his composure said sheepishly. "No Ma'am, Oakley and I just had a disagreement." Looking at Oakley pointedly said, "But we are finished now"

Oakley's sly grin stayed plastered on her face.

"Good. Quiet down both of you or you will be removed from the library."

"Yes Ma'am." The two chorused. Madam Pince glared menacingly at the two for what felt like an eternity but eventually stalked off angrily.

Charlie sat down and began to read his notes. After a few minutes Oakley looked up from her essay, "So are you going to ask her out?"

Charlie looked at her exasperated. Oakley raised her hands in surrender. "Fine, fine! I'll stop." But in more of a whisper she said, "But it won't be an option if you wait too long…"

Charlie looked back down at his notes only to be interrupted with a prod to the shoulder not one minute later.

"Oh, yeah. Can you do me a favor? My dad's birthday is coming up and I really need your help picking something out that he might like."

Charlie said, "Yeah, fine. But what about Mercy?"

Oakley grinned. "I think she has something going on. And I really need your expertise."

Charlie said "Alright then."

He and Oakley returned to their work but now Charlie had some new preoccupying thoughts. Did Mercy really have other plans? Wait, Why did he care so much?...Could he possibly like Mercy as more than a really good friend? He shook his head to try to refocus on immersing himself in electricity.

_**Author's Note:**_

_**Okay so maybe I'm a little bit of a tease… because my friend told me that when she read the chapter title she was anticipating something dirty or perhaps even some mischievous shenanigans. Eh… Sorry. But hey, the shenanigans are coming your way. And the Marauders are going to play a bigger part in this later. Give it some time. Look for around chapter 6… then they start cropping up lots. **_

_**So what do you think? Do you have any questions? Stuff that doesn't make sense? Have a suggestion? Liked something you read or absolutely hated it? **_

_**Well do I have news for you! There is a place below where you can shoot me a review and believe it or not, I will read them and probably send you something back. Whether a humorous anecdote or an answer. Writing is a tug and pull kind of thing: It has no meaning unless someone reads it. So if you are reading it I want to know what you think.**_

_**So Review. Please?**_

_**Sorry for how short it is, I mean I could adjust to what you guys want to read…if you would find some way to let me know… hmmmmmmmmm. I wonder how one could go about doing this. (Cough Cough, see above.) **_


	4. Chapter 4- Spiderman

**_Author's Note_**

**_Awwwwww-right, its Fridaaaaay! I updated chapter 1 yesterday on a whim and if you have gotten this far and have not yet seen the hilarity that ensued, I encourage you to back track and take a peek. _**

**_I'm actually really excited about today in particular because me and a few of my friends are working on a film for the 48-Hour Film Festival and it starts today, so I'm not going to be creepily stalking my story all weekend like I usually do…_**

**_This is a really short chapter, and I'm sorry _**L**. ****_I hope you can find it in your hearts to forgive me. (Hides in a corner). But I can also guarantee that none of the chapters after this will be this short. _**

**_I got 2 more guest reviews last chapter and like the last one I got, Imma address them up here._**

**_Guest #1- Thank you for reading! It does my heart good to get some feedback. Again, about chapter size, this chapter is very, very short but they do get at least twice as long from here on out! And I will keep plucking away at this story. I will try to keep posting 2 new chapters a week, but I'm not sure if I can write two new stories each week, stuff gets pretty complicated as the story has progressed. Dun dun DUNN!_**

**_Guest #2- Yup yup! Like I said to guest 1, I will try to post 2 chapters a week. Thank you for reading! Do you have any specific improvements I can look at? I'd like to hear from you…maybe find some way to identify yourself in another review? Like pick a Pokémon name to review under? _**

**_Necessary Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. _**

**_Sorry I wasn't feeling very creative today. Blah…_**

**_Onward to the story à_**

**_Chapter 4: Spiderman_**

Mercedes nestled herself in a comfy chair right in front of the fire, re-reading some Spiderman comics from her brother. Spiderman was walking through the sewers peering around the corner but from behind him…

"Hey"

Mercy jumped right out of her chair and faced the voice. Remus Lupin was standing right there, and jumped at her startled reaction. "You okay?" he asked

Mercy nodded and laughed. "Yeah I was just reading and I didn't see you coming." She collapsed back onto the chair. Remus perched on top of one of the arms of the chair.

"What are you reading?"

Mercy handed him the comic. "My brother sent it to me with the post."

He flipped through the pages, with an interested look in his eyes. "Where did he get this?"

"The comic shop down the street from my grandparents' house?" Mercy raised her eyebrows at him. "Muggle shop in America." She added.

"America?" he said, cocking his head slightly to the side.

"I'm there pretty much when I'm not in school. My parents take the family over to my Dad's parents for thanksgiving."

Mercy was a little disappointed that she wouldn't be there this year but she really loved Hogwarts. She stared at the fire thinking about her younger brother. The fire made her think of him, not only because his name was Blaze but also because he, like Mercy, had bright red hair.

People used to ask if they were twins when they were younger, and Mercy would smile and nod and just let them think that. Their parents would correct this; there was a year and a half age difference between Mercy and Blaze.

When she and Blaze were kids, Mercy could remember playing the game they would simply call imagination. They pretty much would try to out-do the other. Mercy vaguely remembered making odd things happen that neither Blaze nor she could understand. That was, until a man came along and explained everything to her parents. It was all so sudden and remarkable, beyond anything she could have hoped to imagine.

Of course, her older siblings Jem and Kenda had teased her about it, perhaps out of jealousy but Blaze had never minded. Even when he found out he wasn't a wizard, he still thought Mercy was pretty awesome. Merlin, she missed that kid.

Mercy blinked several times, trying to silence her thoughts. She had to clear her head. "I think I'm going to go for a walk. Do you wanna come?" She looked at Remus who was still sitting on the arm of the chair.

He appeared to think for a second, and stood up. "Yeah alright."

Mercy smiled and led him out of the common room.

**Author's Note**

**So about that chapter. Cheesy chapter. Pathetic attempt. Could Siriusly be improved by sticking it through Google Translate. I am sorry. *bows head***

**Jeez, I seem to be apologizing waaaaay too much. Sorry. Bleck.**

**Ugh. Anyway, shoot me a review if you can find the time, please. I feel like I'm begging here. I'm sorry. **

**LORD HAVE MERCY!**


	5. Chapter 5-The Language of Girls and Boys

_**Author's Note**_

_**Okay! It's Tuesday so that means it's time for a new chapter.**_

_**There are 3 perspective shifts in here and I hope I formatted it a way that makes it readable. If you found it confusing, feel free to review and I'll find another way. So here it is. I don't really have any other weirdness to display before this chapter. **_

_**Disclaimer**__**- Neither the Magical Mystical Universe of Harry Potter nor the People that belong to the world belong to me.**_

_**On with the Story **_

_**Chapter 5- The Language of Girls and Boys**_

Madam Pince kicked Oakley and Charlie out at 8. Literally, she magicked the books to smack them until they left the premises. They landed in the hallway outside the library in a heap. Charlie tried to smooth out his hair a little bit and Oakley rubbed her arm, checking the damage. It was throbbing.

Charlie stood up and put his bag on his shoulder and then helped Oakley up off the floor. He noticed her flinch when he touched her arm.

"You okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine" Oakley said cheerily, but Charlie could tell she was trying to hide something.

"Oaks… Don't you lie to me"

"I'm fine, let's go to the common room."

Charlie squared his shoulders up. "Oakley, you need to go to the hospital wing"

"I told you I'm fine."

"This isn't something you should just tough through. You have to take better care of yourself. You have Quidditch tryouts in TWO DAYS!"

"Why can't you trust my judgment! I know my limits!"

"Well, except when we were in Care of Magical Creatures and your arm caught on fire and you were like 'oh put me out, I'll be fine! And you had 2nd degree burns on your arm! Kettleburn literally dragged you out of class to take you to the hospital wing!"

"You don't need to worry about me; I can take care of myself!"

"Well, YOU AREN'T RIGHT NOW!"

"WHAT MAKES YOU THINK-"

"Well, well, well… What do we have we have here? Two Gryffindors out disturbing the peace close to curfew."

Oakley and Charlie whipped around and simultaneously frowned. Lucius Malfoy, a long blonde haired Slytherin prefect stood in the corridor smirking down at them like they were some sort of snack.

"May I inquire as to what you two are doing out so late?"

"Well you may, but I reserve the right to keep my business to myself" said Charlie coldly.

"You might lose some points for unnecessary cheek, if you aren't careful boy. Do you know who you're dealing with?" Lucius said chillingly.

"Some prissy, sleek, blonde kid has nothing better to do than stalk around the hallways and dock points from unsuspecting students?" Charlie said with a bite to his voice.

"That will be ten points from Gryffindor." Lucius' mouth curved up in a cruel smile. "Oakley, you are better than the company you keep. What would your sweet Grandmama say, hmmm?" His voice was now falsely sweet and he turned to Oakley, his smile growing.

But Oakley was silent. She averted his gaze and dropped her face to the floor while her cheeks started to flush with color.

Charlie looked at her. "That was low Malfoy. You leave her alone or I'll-"

"Charlie stop. Let's go, he's not worth it." Oakley grabbed his arm and started to pull him down the hallway.

"You better watch your back boy, or you will get what's coming to you." Lucius stalked down the hallway.

"Don't count on it." Charlie muttered under his breath.

Oakley and Charlie walked in silence for a few minutes and started up the staircases. When they reached the 4th floor, Charlie stopped Oakley.

"I really think you should go get your arm checked on." Charlie locked his eyes with Oakley.

She sighed and said, "You aren't going to drop this, are you?" Charlie shook his head. They stared at each other for the next couple of seconds.

"Alright, I don't want to go back to the Hospital Wing because Madam Pomfrey said she wants to keep me overnight for observation."

"Well, what do you have to prove? If you are really hurt, which I know you are, you should take care of it now. If you let your pride go over your health you are going to land yourself in the hospital longer than you would if you nip it in the bud now. If you can't do this for yourself, can you at least do this for me, or Mercy? We hate seeing you like this."

Oakley tsked. "Oh whatever. I'll see you tomorrow _**Mum**_." She turned around and stormed away from him toward the Hospital Wing.

Charlie stared at her retreating back until she turned the corner and he couldn't see her any more. He continued up the staircase heading toward the Gryffindor common room. Why did girls have to be so complicated?

Remus and Mercy were walking down the hallway toward the trophy room, a room that Remus was quite familiar with due to his numerous detentions with his fellow Marauders. They talked about school and classes a lot and then started to talk about their families. Mercy felt like she did most of the talking, but Remus was a good listener. They passed the trophy room and entered a hallway that Remus hadn't explored yet.

"Where are we going?" Remus was following Mercy.

Mercy smiled, "Only my favorite spot in the whole castle… but it's kind of a secret so…" she grabbed his hand and she started running down the hallway. Remus was a little surprised but took it in stride. They rounded a corner and started running toward a tapestry that was over what appeared to be a dead end.

"Mercy? That's a Wall! What are we-" Remus said.

"Trust me!" Mercy picked up her pace and then ran straight at the tapestry, laughing. Remus closed his eyes and braced himself for an impact… that didn't come? Remus opened his eyes and was greeted by a huge fountain surrounded by trees and shrubs and hundreds of floating baskets of flowers and vines.

"Wow… This is… Wow" Remus couldn't believe he and his friends hadn't found this place. The room was small but so full of plants it looked like some sort of exotic jungle. He turned to Mercy who was looking at him grinning broadly. He smiled back and asked, "How did you find this place? It seems to be a little of the beaten path."

Mercy smiled and ran her hand through her hair. "It was kind of an accident. Me and Oakley were running away from that stupid cat, Mrs. Norris 1st year. And we came into this hallway and I wasn't looking where I was going and didn't see the wall until I was about 2 feet in front of it and before I could stop I ran right through it."

Remus stared at Mercy. She walked over to the fountain and pulled out some coins. She turned her back to the fountain, closed her eyes, and threw them over her head. They pattered and plopped on the water and Mercy opened her eyes and caught Remus staring.

"What? Is there something on my face? Or, as Oakley would say, am I simply so beautiful that you have no words left?"

Remus blushed. Was she… FLIRTING!? "It's nothing." Mercy laughed and turned toward the baskets yammering on about the various kinds of flowers. Remus hit his head against a tree. Why does he have to be so stupid?

Mercy and Remus talked animatedly about Quidditch on their way back to the common room. Mercy knew a lot about the sport and the teams which was unusual for a muggleborn. Oakley had handed her a book called _Quidditch through the Ages_ in their first year prior to the first flying lesson. Mercy was a natural flyer and just had a lot of grace and ease on a broom, something that Madam Hootch said couldn't be taught. Oakley had practiced a lot as a kid to get away from her parents when she was feeling crowded and got really good. The two nicked brooms in their second year and would fly around the grounds for fun, of course at night which had gotten them into a little trouble once.

Mercy didn't really have allegiance to an international Quidditch team but really showed her house pride at matches, particularly Gryffindor vs. Slytherin. The subject of Quidditch carried them all the way back to the common room.

Remus and Mercy sat on a couch perpendicular to the fire, staring and watching the flames. After a few minutes Mercy stood up, yawned, and stretched.

"I think I'm going to go to bed. I guess I'll see you tomorrow. Night Remus."

"Night." Remus gave a smile, which Mercy returned. She started toward girls' dormitory.

Mercy got about halfway up the stairs, but stopped abruptly, walked back down the stairs and walked back up to Remus who was still staring thoughtfully at the fire. She hugged him from behind and put her chin on his shoulder.

"That was fun. Thanks for coming with me," she mumbled a little red in the face.

"No problem."

Mercy started toward the stairs again.

"Mercy!" Remus got up and turned around and faced her.

"Yeah?" Mercy whipped around hopefully.

"Errrrr… Never mind. I'll see you tomorrow in Herbology. Night!" He blanched as he practically yelled this and half ran out the portrait hole leaving a bewildered Mercedes standing in the middle of the common room.

Mercy stood awkwardly with her mouth slightly agape. She turned quickly and ran up the stairs blushing furiously.

_**Author's Note**_**-**

_**See that one was a bit longer huh? **_

_**Review please!**_


	6. Chapter 6- Cards on Fire

**Good Morning faithful readers! Here is the promised chapter for today. I was going to expand this further, but it's the week before spring break so it's also midterm week. And I've been busy and not to mention I have a really bad cold. So it's a short Chapter again. :P**

**This is the best you are going to get at this point. **

**Disclaimer- I don't own Harry Potter, world or characters. Yada yada yada… **

**So on with the story **

**Chapter 6- Cards on Fire**

Charlie walked up the staircase towards the boy's 4th Year dorm, where he was greeted by the sight of James and Sirius sitting in the middle of the floor making a huge card tower made of Exploding Snap cards that they were levitating with their wands and Peter reading a book.

"Hey guys."

Sirius yelped and dropped a card which promptly exploded knocking down the whole tower and catching James's trousers on fire.

Charlie face-palmed as James rolled around the floor, Sirius ran to get a cup of water, and Peter freaked out and screamed, "STOP DROP AND ROLL!"

James put out the fire with his wand, but Sirius after running all the way to the bathroom dumped a bucket of water on him anyway.

"Sorry…" Charlie walked over to his bed and collapsed on his back, slinging his elbow over his eyes and laughed harder than he had for a long, long time. Pretty soon all the other boys joined in, even the now sopping wet James.

Remus walked into the room and sees a singed pile of cards on the floor, a soaked James sprawled right next to the cards, Sirius draped over Peter's trunk, Peter reading a book, and Charlie appeared to have crashed in his uniform, something he doesn't usually do.

"What's going on here?" Not that this was a too terribly odd turn of events for the roommates, but usually he was around to watch it unfold.

"Oh you know, the usual. A seemingly innocent card game turns into building card tower and then something always goes wrong..." said Peter nonchalantly.

"Moony! Where have you been? The library? You missed out on a lot of fun, James turned some Slytherins hair red and gold, and of course he landed me and him into detention again." Sirius said cheerily.

James laughed and Remus smiled and flopped on his bed.

"But really, where have you been?" James sat up and looked at him from the floor.

"I was… around." Remus turned his head as he felt the heat rising to his face.

"OoOOOooh" James was grinning from ear to ear.

"Remus gots a girlfriend, Remus gots a girlfriend. They're gonna get married and have ten fuzzy children… Remus gots-"

"Shut up, Pete!" Remus was now deeply flushed. Sirius got off Peter's trunk and strutted across the room and laid down next to Remus on the bed.

"So… who's the girl?" Sirius waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"It's… not really any of your business… get off my bed!" Remus tried to shove him off but Sirius didn't budge. James hopped on belly first on Remus's other side.

"It's Mercy, isn't it?" James said with his glasses knocked askew from his jump.

Remus didn't say anything, but turned redder, if that was possible. James wolf-whistled.

And Peter started singing badly and horribly off key, "Remus and Mercy sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G! Remus and Mercy sitting in a tree-"

"Stop it." Remus was glowering. But Pete continued singing.

Sirius put a white sheet over his head and said in a girly voice, "Oh Remus, of course I'll go out with you. In fact let's get married and have 10 children and we'll live in the most beautiful cardboard box ever!"

"Ten FUZZY children," Peter corrected.

"WILL YOU BLOODY WANKERS SHUT UP!" Remus roared.

There was silence. Which James was almost too happy to break.

"He's got it bad."

Remus was simmering in his bed, but little did the other boys know that Charlie was simmering in his bed as well.

**Okay, Review for me please!**


	7. Chapter 7- Leap of Faith

_**Author's Note:**_

_**Good Morning Lovely People! It's Tuesday and I'm on SPRING BREAK! YAY! Which means I gots a lot of time on my hands... bwah-ha-ha-ha-ha!**_

_**Hello "Random Person"! Thanks for your review! I'm glad you appreciated the shenanigans of James and Sirius. There's plenty more of those coming your way.**_

_**Alright, Disclaimer- As flattered as I would be if someone were to think that I could possibly the mastermind behind Harry Potter, his world, and all his chums I have to say I do not own any of it.**_

_**On with the Story **_

**Chapter 7- Leap of Faith**

Captain Trina Macintosh blew her whistle and attempted to wrangle the attention of the Quidditch team hopefuls. She had all the people go through a test run to see how they handled the flight. All of the first years had crashed into the ground in the first lap. Oakley and Mercy flew side by side and then when she narrowed the hopefuls from the nearly 50 who showed up to about 20 people, both of them made the cut. She then had them run through a couple more laps to make sure everyone who made it was up to her standards.

Mercy winked at Oakley and they pulled some of their tricks they had developed in their secret flights second year. They spiraled and dived and swooped around with ease, attracting the attention of the captain, who raised her eyes in interest.

Oakley and Mercy pulled their best maneuver; they flew to the front of the pack, balanced on top of the brooms on their feet, and at the same time leapt off their brooms grabbing the other's broom with one hand and sloth-grip rolled into a sitting position. Mercy then took off into the air barreling up while Oakley took a small dive. At the exact same moment, Mercy dived and Oakley started to spiral upward. They kept going at the exact same angle and it looked like they were going to crash. The moment they were about to hit each other, Oakley stood on her broom jumped hard off the handle and grabbed the broom Mercy was riding while Mercy leapt down onto hers again. Mercy and Oakley circled back into the pack of flyers, but they had attracted the attention of the captain and all the other students watching tryout from the stand.

Particularly the tired blue eyes of Remus Lupin who was staring in amazement up at Mercy. She wasn't one to pull stunts like that, was she? She could've broken her neck.

Sirius was eyeing the two curiously. "I wonder when those two picked that up… That was bloody amazing."

Even James, who was watching the side lines with the rest of the team, was flabbergasted. He was an excellent flyer, but he had never seen anything like it. Trina tried to keep her composure and an open mind in order to give everyone a fair shot. After all, just because they could fly, doesn't mean that they were good Quidditch players.

When everyone landed after the run, Trina had separated the crowd into four groups, one for each position. In the end, there were 4 people trying out for keeper who made the cut, 3 for beaters, 6 for chasers and a whopping 8 seeker hopefuls.

Trina lined up the chasers and keepers for tryouts first. Trina, being a chaser would shoot 3 shots on each keeper, giving James, the other chaser from the team the previous year three as well. Each chaser hopeful would get two chances to shoot on each keeper.

Oakley was set to go third out of the keepers. The first girl guarding the hoops was a good flyer but only saved 7 shots, but none of them were Trina's or James's. The second did a little better, saving one of Trina's shots and 9 shots from the chaser hopefuls but none of James's. Oakley had a much better run. She saved all of Trina's shots, one was quite difficult but she managed to kick the quaffle right out of the ring. James scored only once on her with a well-placed shot that glanced off her fingertips with an odd spin on it. The other chasers didn't score any on her except Greg Panther, who pelted it at her so hard that in knocked her backward through the ring even though she caught it. The last keeper saved 2 of Trina's shots but none of James's and even managed to save 10 of the 12 shots from the Chaser hopefuls.

Instead of announcing who made the team right after the individual positions tryouts, Trina would post the results on the Gryffindor Bulletin board in the common room the next day.

The beaters were to aim their shots at targets that would measure the power of the bludgers when they hit them. If they hit the target at all, they would score one point, and if they hit the red circle in the middle, they would score two points. Power would be factored in later upon Trina's examination.

The seekers were told to catch golf balls that would be magicked to fly into the air. The seeker who caught the ball would change the color of the ball by touching it and once it was colored they could drop it where the balls would put themselves together by color. Out of the 100 golf balls chucked into the air, Mercy caught 27 of them. The top three hopefuls who got the most balls were given an additional test, they had 30 minutes to locate a snitch that Trina released.

The three who had the most balls were Mercy, Taylor Kapowski, and Trey Micklewright. They weaved around each other desperately looking for the snitch. About 20 minutes in, the snitch was found. Mercy spotted it first, floating near the Gryffindor side of the stands. Trey was the closest to it but didn't see it. Mercy sped toward it, turning her head a little to make it look like she was still looking, and the pursuit began.

The snitch was hard to see sometimes but Mercy wouldn't let herself lose focus. Taylor caught on to what Mercy was doing quickly and started following her, which finally alerted Trey. It appeared to be a free-for-all. Mercy still had a lead on Taylor and Trey but she started to get nervous. Right over the stands for Gryffindor she took an almost suicide leap off her broom and felt the tiny wings beating against her right hand. Unfortunately, without her dominate hand, she wasn't quite able to regain a good grip on her broom and she plummeted about 7 feet into the stands, banging her side, then her head, and landing on her back.

Remus jumped off his bench and started to run toward where Mercy had fallen, leaving a semi-shocked Sirius behind.

Mercy lay on the floor of the stand stunned for a second, feeling a pain in her side and her back ebbing. All she could register is she fell, but she was okay. She tried to stand up, but found that her back was making her hunch over a bit so she settled with sitting up. Even this made her dizzy.

"Mercy!" She heard her name being called from two different directions. She saw Remus hopping over seats. Oakley flew up to her from the Quidditch pitch below.

Oakley got there first.

"Merce! That was wicked! You should have seen Macintosh's face… but are you alright?" She was ecstatic but also looked concerned. But Mercy let out a little smile.

"Oh, I'm fine. I just couldn't get a good grip on the bloody broom. When I landed I might have banged my side a little bit, it might bruise, but I don't think it's serious. My back is definitely going to be sore in the morning though." She rubbed her side a little bit. The pain had edged off a little but it didn't really feel too great. Oakley helped her up, and she straightened her back. It hurt, but she was just going to tough this one out.

"Mercy, are you okay!?" Remus was looking at her a little frantically.

"Oh hey Remus. I'm alright. I might have wounded my pride though." She smiled at him, which looked a little more like a grimace, but Remus was relieved anyway. The fact that she was making jokes was a good sign.

Mercy mounted her broom again and addressing Remus said, "I'll see you back in the common room. I want to go give the snitch back to Trina." Oakley waved and flew off, followed soon by Mercy who tried to ignore her aching back.

Remus watched her land on the ground and walk up to Trina. When the relief that Mercy seemed okay faded, Remus wondered how badly she had been hurt. As much as she tried to play it off, she had still fallen 7 feet on top of some hard wooden benches. He saw her wince a little when Oakley helped her up. He just settled to ask her later, and he hoped she was alright as she claimed to be.

_**Alright,**__**Review Puh-lease! :P**_


	8. Chapter 8- Repercussions

**Authors Note**

_**I am ashamed. **_

_**I was supposed to have updated this morning and I forgot. I am truly deeply sorry. *Crawls to a corner and tucks head in shame***_

_**Hopefully I can make up for it somehow... but hey, I didn't get a single solitary review this week. You make me sad. Oh, well. Again it's not like I really have anything better to do. **_

_**So I present you the new Chapter.**_

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. **

_**On with the Story **_

Chapter 8- Repercussions

Mercy trudged up the staircases with Oakley. Going up the stairs was torture. Every move she made seem to make her back hurt a little more, and her side was burning with pain. It was still around 7 o'clock and they had already eaten supper. Oakley and Mercy made it to the 3rd floor without much trouble except for the fact that Oakley thought they were moving at a snail's pace.

Mercy's head was pounding and she felt really hot, like she was going to catch fire. A wave of dizziness passed over her eyes making it hard for her to see.

"Oaks, I'm not feeling so hot."

Oakley looked her over, Mercy looked crappy. Her face was pale, and she was shaking.

"Well, then we'll stop by the Hospital Wing. Man, it's only the 3rd week of school. We spend Waaaaay to much time there."

Mercy didn't even seem to have enough energy to fight the prospect of going to the Hospital. They continued up the stairs. Halfway up the flight, Mercy stumbled on something that she hadn't since the first couple weeks of their first year. She sank right into a trick step. She struggled for a little while but only managed to get herself more stuck and causing her to hit her side on the step. She yelped in pain and Oakley pulled her out of the step, frowning in concern.

"Merce? What's going on? "

Oakley looked at Mercy's eyes and saw them filling with moisture. Mercy gritted her teeth and started up the steps, being half supported by Oakley, when they reached the top of the steps, beads of sweat were forming on Mercy's forehead and she sank to the floor unconscious. Oakley felt her forehead, Mercy was burning up.

Sirius and James were laughing as they came up the stairs from dinner. "Oi, Oakley! That was some great flying at tryouts; James was just saying he had never seen flying like—what's wrong with Mercy?"

James and Sirius walked more quickly up the staircase, though they both remembered to skip over the trick step.

"I think she really hurt herself when she fell off her broom at tryouts. I was just trying to get her to the hospital wing. But she just fainted, and I don't think I can lift her."

Sirius and James looked at each other for a second.

"I'll carry her," Said James. He scooped her up in his arms with very little effort. Sirius said he was going to go up to the common room and left quickly, jumping up the stairs 2 at a time.

Oakley and James walked together, down the corridor toward the hospital wing. "You know, Trina was really impressed by you guys. I think you both are shoe-ins for the team."

Oakley smiled. "That's nice to hear. We had been working on those tricks since last year. But Mercy has always had perception issues; she can over shoot some things by a little bit sometimes."

James looked down at the girl he was holding, she was looking pretty bad. They walked into the hospital wing and Madam Pomfrey bustled over to them.

"Mr. Potter and Miss Milova? What happened?"

She led James to an empty bed and had him put Mercy down on it. She started to do a magical examination.

"We had Quidditch tryouts today and she fell into the stands. She said she was alright but, when I was taking her up to the hospital wing she just fainted." Oakley said as she walked over to the bed.

"What's the damage?" James asked.

Madam Pomfrey tsked. "Well it appears to be a bruised rib cage, a pulled muscle in her back, and a concussion. I'm going to keep her for a few days so she can rest, but I'd say you can come check on her in the morning. She will need quiet."

Oakley thanked Madam Pomfrey, and she and James left the Hospital wing and headed up the stairs toward Gryffindor Tower together.

Sirius bolted into the common room, and after a quick scan found Remus and Charlie at a table working on Defense Against the Dark Arts Homework. He ran up to them.

"Hey Moony! James and I were just coming up from dinner and we ran into Oakley and Mercy on the staircases. Mercy was unconscious-" both Remus and Charlie looked up from their homework startled. Sirius continued, "And Oakley was trying to get her to the hospital wing but couldn't lift her, so James carried her."

Both Remus and Charlie jumped up. "What happened?" Charlie asked. "What's wrong with her?" Asked Remus. They looked at each other and then at Sirius.

"Well she fell off her broom at tryouts but said she was okay. Didn't she mention this at dinner?" Sirius said to Charlie who shook his head.

"I wasn't at dinner. I went to the library to go look up something…" Charlie said.

"Well I don't know how bad it is because I didn't go to the hospital wing with them."

Remus was now worried. "Should we go down and check on her?"

"Naa… James and Oakley will be up soon; we can just ask them then. Anyway, Pomfrey would probably just do the annoying 'kick everyone out'… thing" Sirius said, for once giving a reasonable answer.

Remus and Charlie sat back down at the table but neither of them really did any work. Every time someone would walk into the room they would perk up, but then sink back down when the realized it wasn't James or Oakley. They waited for what seemed to be forever. Finally, Oakley and James walked in. Oakley walked up to the table and sat down on it while James went upstairs to his dorm to change. Sirius followed James up.

"How is she?" Charlie asked with his teeth gritted. Remus listened a little afraid.

"Concussion, fever, bruised ribs, and some pulled muscles. Typical. But Pomfrey said she would be alright. I wasn't allowed to stay, but we can collect her work for her and bring it to the hospital wing tomorrow."

Charlie sighed and put his stuff into his bag. "Other than that, how'd you guys do?"

"Oh it was great until Mercy fell. Well, it was more like a jump. She did end up getting the snitch."

"Wait, she JUMPED!? Like off the broomstick!? What the hell did she expect to happen?" Charlie was in disbelief.

"It was a great catch and she only fell about 7 feet. It could've been so much worse."

"What the hell Oakley? How could it be much worse? She fell off her broom, has a concussion, bruises, and pulled muscles. Is this what it's going to be like? You guys play Quidditch, break every bone in your body and expect me to be alright with that?"

Charlie stormed off to his dorm for the night. Oakley laid down on the table on her back with her feet dangling off the sides and her hands on her forehead while Remus just sat there.

There were a couple minutes of silence.

"…do you think I'm not taking this seriously enough?" Oakley asked Remus kind of resigned.

"Well, she did get hurt worse than we initially thought, but she will pull through in a couple days, right?" Remus put his arms on the table and rested his head on them.

"I hope so…But Charlie is bloody bang out of order. I don't know what he wants from us." Oakley grumbled.

Remus was silent but secretly agreed with Charlie and hoped that they wouldn't put themselves in any more danger just to win a game.

_**Please review. Please. **_


	9. Chapter 9- Cabin Fever

_**Author's Note**_

_**Good Morning People- Happy Late Saint Patrick's Day! It's Tuesday so that means…. (Drumroll Please!)… The New Chapter is headed your way!**_

_**So I finally made it to 500 hits this week and I am absolutely thrilled. But do you know what would make that even better? If you lovely people could shoot me reviews… come on, please ! This story will die without them. **_

_**So anyway, I'm still trying to figure out a better way to signal POV changes. I'll get there someday. Any suggestions?**_

_**Disclaimer- I am not JK Rowling so I therefore do not own any of the Rights to Harry Potter. Now if I did and I possessed even a fraction of the talent for writing she does, I would probably not be writing fanfiction. So, there you go. **_

_**On with the Story **_

Chapter 9- Cabin Fever

Mercy was sleeping when Charlie and Oakley visited her the next day after classes. Madam Pomfrey said her fever had passed but she still needed quiet and rest. Oakley and Charlie stayed for a half hour, talking quietly, but left for dinner when Oakley complained about being hungry. They left all of Mercy's assignments on her bedside table with a note.

**Hey Merce! We stopped by before dinner but you were too rude to be conscious.**

_We got your assignments for you but all the teachers said don't worry about it too much. We'll help you out. _

**We'll be in tomorrow evening, just to see how you're doing. In the meantime, Charlie and I will be spending most of the morning in the library. I think Charlie wants to study and get homework done or something else dumb like that. But I think I'll start looking up some of the spells we talked about.**

_So in other words, I'll work and she'll cause trouble. There's also a deck of real cards (not the exploding variety) on the table too, so you can play Solitaire or something to pass the time until we get there… you could work on your assignments. _

**Yeah, Right.**

_Anyway, get better Mercy. And don't do anything stupid._

_Charlie _**and Oakley!**

**...**

Mercy woke up around 10 o'clock Saturday morning lying in a bed that she realized with a start wasn't hers. She gazed around and noted that everything seemed be white, she figured she probably was in the Hospital Wing, and noted that it appeared someone was sitting next to the bed she was in, reading a book. She couldn't really tell who it was because her eyes were still adjusting to the light. She rubbed them and heard a voice call out to her.

"Oh, Miss Baines! You're finally awake" Madam Pomfrey seemed to have some hidden ninja sense and bustled up to her bed. As she opened her now adjusted eyes, she looked at the person who was sitting next to her bed, and found it was Remus Lupin. He looked up from his book and said, "Morning". She tried to sit up, but it was difficult. Madam Pomfrey helped get her into a sitting position, and gave her a pepper- up potion.

"Drink this, Dear. All in one go, that's a girl." Mercy gave the potion three gulps, cringing a little at the taste, but then perked up.

"Alright, you will be staying here the night again and I think you will have recovered enough to leave tomorrow morning."

Mercy nodded and sank a little back into her pillows. Madam Pomfrey smiled and walked to her office.

Mercy turned to Remus. "How long you been there?"

Remus put a book mark in his book and shut it. "Erm, I probably got here an hour ago. I thought you might want some company. Though I'm kind of surprised Oakley and Charlie aren't here."

Mercy looked at the table next to her bed. There were a small stack of parchment, her textbooks, a deck of cards, and a note. She grabbed the note and read it, smiling a little and shaking her head. "Oakley and Charlie left a note. It looks like they'll pop in this evening."

Remus pulled out a chessboard and two sets of wizard pieces. "I brought this in case you wanted to play." Mercy groaned. "What's wrong? Are you alright?" He said as he raised his eyebrows.

"Oh, I'm fine, you're just about to discover how bloody awful I am at chess. Oakley creams me every single bloody time."

Remus laughed. "Well maybe you're better than you think."

She wasn't. She was exactly as she said. Bloody Freaking Awful. But they still had a good time. They played three games laughing and talking about everything and anything. Remus ran through what happened in the lessons Mercy had missed and Mercy told him about a weird dream she had once about being chased up a tree bu a big friendly dog. Mercy seemed to get worse as they played, having no real strategy and just moving pieces because she could. Remus beat her in the last game in 5 moves.

Mercy flipped the chessboard over, flinging their pieces everywhere then crossed her arms. Remus was shocked for a second, but seeing the surly expression on her face started to laugh, which Mercy grudgingly joined in.

It was around 12:30 now, and Remus summoned the chess pieces and board and put them into his bag. He stood up, slinging his bag over his shoulder. "Well, I better go down to lunch." He said, reluctantly.

"Thanks for stopping by." She said. She was sad he was going to go; she had enjoyed his company.

"Hey, Mercy. I have something I've been meaning to ask you." Remus looked down at the floor.

"Go for it." Mercy tried to make eye contact but Remus seemed to be avoiding it at all costs.

"Well, there's supposed to be a trip to Hogsmeade next weekend and I was wondering if you, errrrr, had any plans to go with anyone." He shifted his weight and his eyes traveled up and met hers.

Mercy's eyes widened and a faint blush rose to her cheeks. But she smiled. "Not at the moment."

"Well, would you mind, I mean, want to err… go together?" There was a quick pause in which Remus looked down and Mercy turned a little deeper red.

"Yeah. Sure." She said with a small grin curling her lips.

"Really!" He looked up again and she nodded. "Great! I'll stop by tomorrow morning Mercy. See ya!" He said ecstatically and practically hopped out of the hospital wing. Mercy stared at his retreating back a little baffled but couldn't help but smile.

Wait until she tells Oakley.

...

Oakley stopped by the Hospital Wing after lunch. Having spent all morning in the library with Charlie, there was no way that she was going to spend the afternoon being quiet and sitting still.

"Hey, you lazy bum! I thought you were going to stop by later," said Mercy putting aside her bowl of soup.

"One can only spend so much time in the library, especially when the lone companion insists on studying and doing school work. At least you seem to be in a good mood. May I ask what inspired that? Or _who?_" Oakley grinned flopping on the chair next to Mercy's bed.

"Is it that obvious?" Mercy stopped making eye contact but Oakley didn't miss the subtle upturn of Mercy's lips.

"Pfft, yeah. And there was also the fact that Remus practically skipped into lunch today. So I figured. Let's play cards."

Mercy and Oakley played an odd 2-man adaptation of Euchre for a couple hours to burn daylight. Most people they had played with got bored of playing the same game for that long but Oakley and Mercy could play for hours.

"So we just played chess all morning and I was horrible. It was kind of embarrassing, he's actually pretty good. But the last game we played he beat me in 5 moves." She said.

"Anyone could beat you, sorry darling." Oakley said with a laugh

Mercy huffed, "Thanks for the vote of confidence. But anyway, he was walking out the door to go to lunch and he asked me to go to Hogsmeade with him in 2 weeks."

Oakley seemed a little taken aback. "Really? Well, it took him long enough."

"I'm so excited. I can hardly wait." Mercy said enthusiastically.

Mercy and Oakley kept playing Euchre until Charlie entered the wing. "It was too quiet in the library." He pulled up a chair and sat down next to Oakley.

Oakley grinned and said with a wink, "I told you not to miss me too much. And you said it'd be a relief to have some peace and quiet."

"Well, it was nice for a little while. But then these stupid distracting thoughts became so freaking loud in my mind I couldn't focus." He said.

"Oh, I'm sure that's all it was" Oakley said sarcastically, with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

"Well if you hadn't been trying to distract me the whole time I was trying to work, I would've been sadder to see you go." He countered.

Oakley looked off in the distance and said in a high voice, "Whatever you say, Darling"

Charlie looked as though he was going to respond but cleared her throat with a loud "Ahem". Oakley and Charlie stopped talking and both looked at their amused friend.

"Well, it's nice to see you too." Mercy said sarcastically.

Charlie shot her a sheepish look, and it seemed like he had just realized he had been ignoring her. "Sorry Merce. So, umm, what you been up to? How are you feeling?"

"Oh, I'm fine. Just getting cabin fever." She said as she shifted in her bed.

"What have you been up to?" Charlie asked. "Doing homework, yeah?" He said, in a casual sarcastic tone. Oakley snorted.

Mercy wrinkled her nose and shook her head. "I've really just been messing around all day. Remus stopped by this morning and we played chess until he left for lunch. And Oakley came after lunch and we've just been playing cards."

"Lupin was here?" Charlie asked, trying to sound innocent but it was ill-disguised.

"Yeah… Hey… What's got your wand in a knot?" Oakley saw Mercy's smile slip when she saw Charlie clench his fists and look down at his lap.

"Nothing." He said, but Oakley wasn't buying it.

"Sure." Mercy said, but Oakley could tell she wasn't totally dismissing the topic either.

Charlie looked as though he was in the mood to strangle something, and he changed the subject. "Anyway, I've been meaning to say this… What part of jumping off your broomstick looked like it would be a good idea?"

Mercy's smile disappeared. "Whoa, hold up. Charlie. I was just-"

"You had to catch that snitch. I know. Well are you happy? You made that bloody team but was it worth it?"

Oakley listened as the air around the conversation got more and more tense.

"I did make the team? Why didn't you tell me Oaks?" Mercy asked, dragging Oakley into the conversation.

Oakley's eyes shifted between Mercy and Charlie. "It must have slipped my mind." She shifted uncomfortably in her seat.

Mercy's mouth curved up in elation. "YES! When do practices start? Am I going to miss any?" Oakley hesitated, but before she spoke, Charlie stood up. "Did you hear me? Was it worth it?"

Mercy stared at him and sat up as far as she could. "Well, what do you mean? I made the team; that was the whole point of this thing huh?"

"You jumped off a broom. Why would you do something so stupid?" His face started to turn a delicate shade of pink as he got more angry.

Mercy looked at him in confusion. "Charlie, What the hell are you on about?"

"You JUMPED. OFF. A BROOM." He said, exaggerating each syllable.

"Seekers are just supposed to do whatever they can to catch the snitch. That is just how Quidditch works!" She stuck out her chin defiantly not understanding where this angst was coming from.

Charlie rubbed his eyes in frustration. "Well you know what? Some way or another, last year's seeker managed not to almost get herself killed during a match."

"Last year's seeker was a fucking pansy! She didn't catch the snitch once! Not even once!" She said loudly, Oakley jumped as Mercy cursed. She was really getting riled up.

"You know, one of these days you are going to really hurt yourself, maybe even permanently. And when that day comes I will be able to say I told you so. But I won't want to." Charlie said.

"What am I…? ME!? Oh screw this. I'll see you tomorrow maybe." And he stormed out. Mercy and Oakley watched his retreating back.

"What is his problem!? What did I do?" She said, her whole face flushed bright red. "If he so bent against me playing Quidditch he should have said something before." Mercy grumbled as she buried her face in her hands and leaned back a little painfully onto her pillows.

Oakley carefully chose her words. "Okay… so. It wasn't anything you did… but… it had everything to do with you…"

Mercy removed her hands from her face and shot her an exasperated look. "Gee thank you for clearing that up."

"Mercy, isn't it obvious!? He's jealous! What, were you born without a radar?" Oakley rolled her eyes, leave it to Mercy to be Captain Oblivious.

Mercy's jaw dropped. "Wait, he…what? He… Charlie likes _me_?"

Oakley tilted her head to the side and nodded slowly.

"Well shit. That's so awkward." She said. And then realized that he had only freaked out after she mentioned her date with Remus. She mentally admonished herself for being clueless. "But wait, this had nothing to do with the Quidditch thing?" She asked.

"Well not really… I just think his patience has worn thin. He can't stand it when you get hurt." Mercy looked befuddled. So Oakley hastily thought of an example.

"You remember that one time when someone's potion blew up in class because Sirius threw a wet-start firework in it and one of the shards hit you in the face and you had that huge scratch down your cheek that was practically oozing blood? And Charlie punched Sirius in the face right in front of ole Sluggy?" Oakley watched as Mercy struggled to recall the incident.

"I think… yeah I do. But why, didn't he just say something?" Mercy asked. Oakley bopped her on the arm forgetting how sore Mercy was. After Mercy's yelp subsided, Oakley answered.

"He thought he'd look like an idiot, dumbass." She shook her head in annoyance.

Mercy looked sad. "Well, I'm not going to just tell Remus I've changed my mind. He's… You know how long I've liked him. I always hoped he… well he would feel… I mean I hoped he would make the first move. Man, I just couldn't do that; it would break my heart. I hope Charlie understands that…" Mercy pulled one of her pillows over her face.

"That's likely" Oakley said honestly. Mercy smacked her with the pillow.

_**Alright, that was a longer chapter this time, so Review! Puh-lease!**_


	10. Chapter 10- Try not To Hurt Yourself

_**Author's Note**_

_**It's Friday and I'm updating. Too lazy to think of something else to write.**_

_**Sorry, I didn't update first thing this morning... truthfully I simply forgot. Yeah. **_

_**Disclaimer- I don't own Harry Potter or his world or any of the people who live there. **_

_**On with the story **_

Chapter 10- Try not to Hurt Yourself

Mercy was sitting at her typical study spot in the library Sunday afternoon, poring over her charms homework and getting increasingly frustrated. It wasn't that she disliked Charms; in fact she really enjoyed Professor Flitwick's lessons. She just wasn't very good at it.

She sighed and twiddled her wand between her fingers. She knew why the spell was useful, that was pretty obvious. The writing was never difficult, and the theory seldom hard to grasp, but why couldn't she do the stupid spell!? For heaven's sake, this was a 3rd year spell.

She was pointing her wand at a broken figurine of a ship she had gotten from her grandmother, but the stupid thing wouldn't fix.

"Reparo!" She pointed her wand at the figurine, and the pieces moved together. Well Finally! She put it on the corner of the table right next to her charms book and removed her reading glasses. She rubbed her eyes tiredly.

Nadine Montgomery, a tall thin Aryan fourth year Slytherin, purposefully walked into Mercy knocked the ship onto the floor with one of her flailing arms and it broke into pieces once again.

Mercy flinched at the sound of her newly repaired figurine shattering and glared over at Nadine. "Are you freaking kidding me!?" She said, not believing for a minute it had been an accident.

"Oh sooooooo sorry, Mercedes. I didn't see you there..." She said in her high smooth voice. It put a bad taste in Mercy's mouth. In mock concern Nadine asked "How are you doing? I heard you fell off your broom at tryouts. And you still made the team. Looks like Gryffindor is sinking to an all new low." Her mouth curled into a cruel smile.

Mercy rolled her eyes. "First off, I jumped off and I caught the damn snitch. So get your facts straight." Nadine and Mercy had never gotten along, ever since their encounter on the train when Nadine tripped her because she found out she was a muggleborn.

"Like there's really any difference." Nadine said, flipping her blonde hair.

"Oh, buzz off. Don't you have anything better to do?" Mercy glared at the figurine she had spent the past hour trying to repair.

Nadine laughed obnoxiously. "Of course I do, you're obviously just a waste of time."

Mercy raised her eyebrows and asked in a falsely pleasant voice, "Why are you still here then?"

"I had some time to burn. Well, good luck in your first game of the season. I'll make sure there's someone running below your broom with a mattress." She then let out a high cackle and as she left, she knocked all of Mercy's papers and books onto the floor. She walked away cackling. Mercy resisted the urge to hex her, as she didn't want to get kicked out of the library. She sighed and took in the sight of her papers and books scattered on the floor.

Mercy painfully got out of her chair and bent down to start picking up everything. Madam Pomfrey told her she would be stiff for a day or two and she was to take it easy. Cursing under her breath about difficult spells and dumb blond Slytherins, she sorted her Muggle-Studies, Herbology, and Charms homework from when she missed class Friday into piles.

"Hey there" a voice said, interrupting her stream of profanities. Mercy jumped and bumped her head on the bottom of the table.

"Ouch!" She yelped rubbed the top of her head and looked up. Remus was looking down at her trying to suppress a chuckle. "I swear, you pick the most inopportune moments to sneak up on me." She said.

"Sorry, it's not like I do it on purpose. Why is your stuff everywhere?" He bent over and started to help her pick up her stuff. "Did you trip?" He grinned over at her.

"No I didn't trip… That bitc…uh…brat… Nadine Montgomery came over here and just started knocking my stuff everywhere." She gathered up the last of the papers and put them on the table. Taking the books from Remus, she put them next to the papers and then stared mournfully at the broken ship on the floor.

"What was this?" Remus was fingering the pieces of the figurine.

"It was from my grandmother. She sent it to me." She said.

"How did you break it?" He asked.

Mercy huffed, blowing some hair out of her face. "I tripped." Remus laughed and Mercy shook her head in amusement. "I was got it with the post a couple weeks ago. I had managed to make it up to my room, but I stepped on one of Oakley's shoes and fell and it kind of flew across the room and shattered against the window." Apparently Remus found this deeply amusing, but looked as though he was trying to conceal it. Mercy furrowed her brow, "Laugh it up." She said as he fought to keep a straight face. "Anyway, the only reason I brought it here is because I wanted to practice the Mending Charm on it. I had been trying to repair it probably for an hour or so until I finally got it, then that jerk had to knock all my stuff off the table." She pointed her wand at the figurine. "Reparo."

But nothing happened. Mercy face palmed.

Remus shot her pitying look. "I think the theory behind the spell is more like putting a puzzle together. If you focus on making the pieces fit together maybe it would work better." Remus said. Mercy looked at him for a few seconds.

"Alright, I'll try it." She raised her wand again. "Reparo." The pieces jumped together again. "Hey, it worked!"

"Great!" Remus picked up the figurine and put it next to her books. He got up and offered a hand to Mercy. Taking it, she got up gingerly, aware of the pain in her ribs and back.

"Thanks, Remus. You know… if I ever need help in Charms, I might just track you down."

"Hey, it's no big deal. If you need anything just ask. I'll see you at dinner maybe?" He looked down and realizing he still had her hand, blushed a little, and let go.

"Yup, see you later Remus." Mercy smiled and turned to start putting her stuff in her bag.

Remus walked away, and Mercy watched him go out of the corner of her eye, smiling to herself.

_**Author's Note**_

_**Yeah it's short... but in my defense that last one was really really long. I'm starting to notice a trend, my Tuesday updates tend to be a good bit longer than my Friday ones. I don't really know what that's about. **_

_**So It would be great if you could shoot me a review, I'd love to hear from you. **_


	11. Chapter 11- Musical Chairs

_**Author's Note**_

_**Morning everyone. Bam, New Chapter headed your way.**_

_**Disclaimer- This is Fanfiction, not real legitimate writing from the hand of JK Rowling. **_

_**On With the Story **_

Mercy ran into the double potions period later than she wanted to. She had slept in, and she was beating herself up for. Not only did she miss breakfast but she practically sprinted down the stairs almost falling three times.

She tried to look less frenzied as she walked into the classroom, patting here hair down. She scanned over the class trying to look for Oakley. She spotted her in the second row but the seat next to her was occupied by Charlie. Charlie met Mercy's eyes and crossed his arms. There was no way he was moving. She tsked and started to look for another seat.

She spun slowing in a circle, looking desperately for a desk next to someone friendly. Seeing an open one next to Nadine Montgomery, she felt her throat tighten. Please no. Someone grabbed her arm gently.

"Good morning" Remus smiled at her and Mercy gave a him halfhearted one in return, still looking for an empty desk.

"Do you want sit next to me today? Pete and James are sitting together today and Sirius is sitting next to Marlene." Mercy looked at Sirius who was indeed chatting it up with the girl that Charlie usually sat next to. Well at least that explained why Charlie had taken her seat.

"YES! Thank God!" She said maybe a little too enthusiastically because Remus looked a little taken aback. So she felt it necessary to explain. "Well I think Charlie usually sits next to Marlene, and since Sirius is there, Charlie took my seat next to Oakley so I was looking for a free one, and the first one I saw was next to Montgomery and I really didn't want to sit next to her because she…" She realized she was rambling and bit her lip. Remus laughed.

"Come on, I'm sitting in the back." He led her to his table which was across the aisle from James and Peter.

"Oi Mercy! How are you doing?" James looked over at her. Mercy grinned back.

"I'm fine." She sat down and pulled out her potions book, a Muggle notebook of lined paper and a pencil.

James looked at it curiously and very interestedly. "Why are you using that?" he asked.

Mercy smiled. "I never could write in a straight line, even when I try. I guess I just like lined paper because it makes my notes look neater." _**(AN: Siriusly, doesn't anyone else think that muggleborns would sneak in this stuff. To be honest there's a reason that we Muggles stopped using quills. I feel like they would just be a wee bit of an inconvenience)**_

James nodded. "Anyway, Congratulations on making the team. That was some wicked flying at tryouts. The first practice is tomorrow."

"Tomorrow, huh? I'll be there."

"Okay? But you will be okay for practice right?" James asked.

Mercy knitted her brow in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Well you just in the hospital wing… are you fit to be flying?" Remus asked.

"Oh… yeah. Don't worry about it. I'll be fine." Mercy said truthfully. She was feeling a lot less stiff today. James was no longer listening to Mercy, because Lily Evans had just entered the classroom taking a seat next to Mary McDonald. He rumpled his hair up. Mercy smiled shook her head and started digging around in her bag for potions textbook.

"Good Morning Class!" Professor Slughorn said, walking up to his desk with a smile on his chubby but friendly face. There was a chorus of 'Good Morning, professor' and Slughorn continued. "Today we shall be brewing a Girding Potion. Does anyone have any idea how a potion such as this can be useful? Yes Miss Evans."

Lily's hand was the quickest in the air. She sat up in her seat and said, "The Girding potion is used to raise the endurance of the drinking, therefore it could be useful in many contexts. Manuel labors, or for extended studying time so on and so forth."

"Very good. Ten points to Gryffindor. Now also keep in mind that drinking too much of this potion could be harmful so don't get any ideas about using it all the time. Now, we are kind of crunched for time, so I will be brief. You will be working with you partner to brew this potion. At the end of class each potion can be tested on one of these rats at the front. Five points will be awarded for every correct potion. But a word of caution, if the potion is brewed incorrectly, it will be will either put the rat to sleep or poison it and five points will be deducted. So you and your partner will decide whether or not to test the potion. I have instructions written on the board. Go get your ingredients and get started." He said clapping his hands.

Remus looked over at Mercy who had started to copy down the instructions off the board onto the notebook paper. She ripped out a page. "Here's the ingredients list. Do you mind running over to the cupboard to get them?" She asked.

"Okay," Remus joined the queue of people going to get their supplies. When he got back with everything, Mercy had the instructions copied down, and her pewter caldron put in the middle of their table.

Mercy and Remus prepped the ingredients according to the instructions and started. Remus was on edge because he wasn't good with potions. Mercy saved the potion more than once and gave one piece of advice to Remus. "The thing with potions is the instructions are very important but you also need to feel when you do the next part of the potion. It's kind of like bending a stick to see how far it can go without breaking it. So the instructions are important but don't let them take your focus off the potion"

Mercy had a knack for telling when to do the next step but had trouble remembering quantities. Remus was good at that so together they made the potion well. It was the precise green that it was supposed to be. Mercy smiled and she and Remus started to clean up they're area. Remus put the potion into a vial and cleaned out the cauldron.

"So do you think we should test it?" Remus asked.

Mercy nodded. "I'm fairly certain it is right. We might as well." Their table cleared, they gave their potion to Slughorn.

He took it with a smile. "Are you testing this potion?" Remus nodded and Slughorn tested it on a light grey rat. A few drops had it running around in circles. "Well, done. That will be five points to Gryffindor. Perhaps you two should partner more often." He winked and both Mercy and Remus smiled. They walked to Transfiguration together.

**Author's Note**

**Shortish, huh… Sorry Not Sorry :P Anyway, Review puh-lease!**


	12. Chapter 12- Intervention

_**Author's Note**_

_**This has been a strange morning and yes, this is a little late to be updating… in my defense everything was cray… craaaaaazy. **_

_**So I woke up this morning at like 7 and I had full intention of writing a three page paper for my 11:30 history class, but then I decided I liked sleep. So I went back to sleep until nine and then wrote the paper in about an hour… which is actually quite impressive considering I didn't do too poorly, in my opinion. **_

_**And I was able to shower and print out my paper in the computer lab upstairs in my dorm. I was like a time wizard this morning and I'm actually really proud. Except I did manage to lose my cell phone… Still haven't found it. **_

_**You know, I just realized I think I spent more time writing this chapter than I did on my paper… I need to sort out my priorities. **_

_**Disclaimer- I do not possess the rights to Harry Potter's world, Characters, or any of Mrs. Rowling's ideas or work.**_

_**On with the Story **_

Chapter 12- Intervention

Oakley wiped the sweat from her brow. Trina was tough. She had them run around the Quidditch pitch four times just as a warm-up. Oakley knew Mercy wasn't all that found of running but Oakley didn't mind it. She ran with Mercy although Mercy's pace was a good bit slower than what Oakley could handle.

Everyone split up into 3 respective groups. The chasers and Oakley would be working together, while the beaters would be practicing separately, and Mercy was told to fly around and try to find the snitch.

Oakley looked at the team; she knew of most of the people on the team, like Justin Sekata, a legendary beater. Rumor had it he had been approached by the pros in his 5th year. He hadn't signed anywhere, but everyone knew it was only a matter of time. He was working with Ash Martinkovich, trying to break him of some bad habits.

The boy who had nearly knocked her right off her broom in tryouts, Greg Panther, was learning some of the basic Gryffindor chaser formations. Oakley was told to catch any shots that came her way. James, Trina, and Greg seemed to work very well together but overall, they were too predictable to make any real challenge for Oakley.

Oakley focused on the oncoming chasers. Trina overhead passed the quaffle to Greg who surged forward. He aimed at the right ring but Oakley could tell it was a fake-out because Greg's eyes kept shifting to James who was hovering toward the left ring. Oakley waited for a couple seconds and Greg made a pelting pass to James who caught it and tossed it toward the left ring but Oakley spiraled over and kicked the ball to Trina.

"Nice one, Milova. Greg, Make sure you don't clue the keeper into the play. Keep your eyes focused on the ring, and then allow yourself a second adjust. Then the keeper won't have as much time block it." Trina said. "Let's run another one."

Practice ran on for what felt like ages. Oakley blocked shots, dodged bludgers, and eventually worked on returning the quaffle to a teammate after a shot. She did drop kicks, intended for a teammate who was a good bit out of the scoring range. She also worked on reverse passes with Greg.

About a half an hour before practice was due to be over; Mercy dived toward the ground. Everyone stopped what they were doing to watch her. She had spotted the snitch about three feet away from the ground and pulled out of the dive right before she crashed. Ducking under a bludgers, she put on a burst of speed. The snitch was slowly getting higher up. Mercy stood up on her broomstick stuck her arm up and plucked it right out of the air. Shifting her weight on her back foot, her broom rose up and she jumped back into a seated position. She flew up to Trina, who grinned and took the snitch.

"Alright, team. Good practice. I think I'm going to let you guys go now. Gryffindor has the pitch Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Our first match of the season will be against Slytherin 2nd Saturday in November, so get ready for a brutal match. We'll talk strategy Thursday. Hit the showers!"

Everyone flew to the locker room. Oakley landed next to Mercy.

"Hey! I feel like I haven't seen you all day." She said.

Mercy looked over, confusion settled on her face. "We have all the same classes…"

"I know that stupid. You didn't sit next to me at all: not even at lunch." She said.

Mercy shot her an exasperated look. "Dude, how was I supposed to do that if Charlie took the seat every time?"

"Oh yeah..." She said uncomfortably.

Mercy sighed. "Is Charlie that mad at me?"

"I think it's not you so much as he's kind of mad at himself… I'll talk to him if you want"

"No no no… I should be the one to talk to him. Ugh… I hate boys." Running a hand through her tangled red hair, courtesy of the wind.

Oakley smirked. "Even this Remus Lupin who you sat next to every class today?"

Mercy punched her arm but Oakley saw the blush rise to her cheeks paired with a goofy grin.

888

Charlie and Oakley walked out of breakfast together. Oakley bent down to tie her shoe, so Charlie just gazed around the Entrance Hall watching the third years handing their permission forms for Hogsmeade. He saw the excited faces of his fellow students, in the corner he saw Mercy talking animatedly to Remus with a huge grin on her face.

He turned away from her, and gritted his teeth. Oakley stood after she finished tying her shoe.

"I'm all set to go! Oh, I'm sooooooo excited!" She squealed. Charlie looked over at her and seeing the look on he had on his face, her smile slipped. "Listen, I know you wanted Mercy to come with us, but you can't let that stop you from enjoying yourself. This is HOGSMEADE. We've been looking forward to this ALL SUMMER." She said. Charlie shrugged and put his hands in his pockets. He and Oakley followed the crowd out the door.

It was a blustery day; the wind was whipping things out of people's hands and many people were ducking into shops as fast as they could. They walked down the most popular street for students. Many of the best stores were already packed. Honeydukes was so packed that the crowd was practically out the door.

Charlie sighed, he had wanted to pick up some candy, but Oakley shook her head. "What do you think about exploring a little bit? The hype for those shops will probably die down a little bit soon. I bet Hogsmeade has a lot of smaller stores that we haven't seen yet." She said and Charlie nodded.

"Yeah alright. Did you still want to look for something for your dad?" He asked, recalling the conversation they had had in the library.

"Oh, Yeah! I almost forgot about that."

They got to the end of the main road and turned right and walked down the much less crowded lane. They walked, peeking in and out of stores. Charlie saw a small store that sold some magical school supplies and was staring at the interesting array of quills of all colors and sizes.

"Charlie." Oakley said testily. He broke away from the indigo feather quill he was admiring and looked over to Oakley's thoughtful face.

"You know you like Mercy." She blurted, and looked immediately frustrated at herself for not taking it slower.

Charlie rolled eyes and his rubbed his hand across his face. "Let's not start this again."

Oakley stared at him; the wind had caught her long black her and it was blown from her face. She was rather unreadable; when she spoke her voice was hesitant. "Do you understand how difficult this is? You are impossible. Really, this isn't her fault."

Charlie felt anger and hurt boil up inside him. "I should have known you would take her side in this." He crossed his arms looking into her eyes.

"You are so bloody unreasonable! This isn't about sides. Heck, this isn't even about me. I didn't you think you would let anything get in between you and your best friend." She said, the unreadableness long gone from her face and replaced with an anger that was rarely present. Charlie broke eye contact and looked down at the ground.

Oakley sighed, "Charlie, do you remember in 2nd year when some 7th year dweeb tripped you in the hallway and all your books and papers scattered everywhere? Do you remember what Mercy did?" She asked, her voice returning to a softer tone.

Charlie thought for a moment, looking up at the sky. "She hexed his tongue to the roof of his mouth." He remembered that day well; Mercy got her first detention ever. And she didn't even complain about it.

"Exactly." She said, looking at him imploringly. "And she would do a lot worse to anyone who tried to pull any of that nonsense on you now. Do you understand? Mercy cares about you." Charlie looked at her; he had a feeling he knew what she would say next. "Thing is she also cares about Remus. You know she wouldn't date him to make you unhappy."

Charlie swallowed, voicing what had been bothering him. "It just doesn't seem fair. What does he have that I don't?"

Oakley looked sad. "Charlie… It's not that simple." There was silence as she struggled to find something else to say.

Charlie looked down the street, and then his eyes drifted toward the sky and the clouds. He pictured himself with Mercy, enjoying the delights of Hogsmeade with her and her laugh. "I just want things to be different."

Oakley was quiet still… she looked at him hesitantly. "You know how school is supposed to be. Relationships just don't last very long. But you know... she could do a lot worse than Remus. At least he's a decent fellow."

Charlie nodded grudgingly. If it had to be any one, at least it was Remus. He wasn't the type to mess around with girls and their feelings. Had it been Sirius… Charlie shook his head. Mercy wasn't stupid; she wouldn't fall for Sirius's flirting.

Oakley smiled slightly. "What say you and I go to the Three Broomsticks for a butterbeer?"

Charlie nodded. "Yeah, alright."

**Author's Note**

**Review Puh-lease!**


	13. Chapter 13- SocksPlotsLet's be Friends

**Author's Note:**

**It's April fool's Day and so there are signs of mischief about to happen... OoOOOooh.**

**Disclaimer- Yes, I am secretly the mastermind Harry Potter and I own everything I wrote about in here. Heavy Sarcasm, That statement is definitively false. **

Oakley and Charlie walked back to the castle after spending all afternoon wandering around trying to find a present for Oakley's father. Oakley eventually settled on a set of playing cards that she was able to design herself in the store and some candy from Honeydukes. She told Charlie that she was probably going to hand-make a manual with pictures so he could figure out some new games to play with the cards.

She also found a pair of socks that would cry if they weren't chosen to be worn. She picked out one of the kookiest patterns she could find, orange and purple argyle with phoenix's flying over the top. Charlie was apprehensive to say the least. He had met Oakley's dad, who was pretty cool but he didn't know what Oakley's mother would do. Maybe her staying at Hogwarts over Christmas break would be a good idea.

As they walked down the back alley again, they stumbled on a music store call Dominic Maestro's. Charlie knew by instinct that Mercy would fall in love with the place and tucked its location in the back of his mind to show it to her sometime.

They went down to supper, and had just started to eat when Mercy walked into the hall toward them. Her hair was windblown, and her cheeks were flushed. Sitting down across from them she started to load her plate.

"Hey guys! What's going on?" she said, smiling. Charlie

"Nothing really. We just got here." Oakley said. "So, what mischief did you get up to today?" She wiggled her eyebrows.

Mercy rolled her eyes and smirked. "I'll spare you the details..." She said in a suggestive tone of voice. She glanced over at Charlie, who felt his face go white. "Relax, I'm only kidding Charlie."

"Oh don't do that, we want to hear…._everything,_" Oakley said, trailing her voice off to a whisper. Charlie hastily diverted his eyes back down to his food, trying to somehow take interest in the vegetables he had piled on his plate.

"Remus and I went to Honeydukes. I swear he is obsessed with chocolate. After that we just wandered around; we looked in Zonko's and the bookstore. Then we looked at the brooms in the window of Spintwitches but we didn't really feel like going in. So we ducked into the Three Broomsticks for butterbeer. Funny though, he has a strong aversion to the Shrieking Shack…" She said, her expression becoming thoughtful. Charlie found that a little odd as well. You'd think the most haunted place in Britain would attract troublemakers like the Marauders. "Anyway, what did you guys do?" She asked.

Charlie swallowed a bite of his sandwich. "We went around the back streets. There are some neat small shops that we looked in. Did you know there is a music store?"

Charlie watched her face light up. "Really? What's it like?"

"It's cramped; they have a really nice grand piano, baskets of music, and practically every instrument you could imagine." He was really pleased on how happy she was.

"Wow! The three of us really ought to check that out next time. Say Oaks, did you look up those spells that we talked about last week?" Next time? Charlie thought. If she was planning on chilling out with them on the next trip, maybe the date hadn't gone so well. This thought cheered him and he continued eating his dinner.

"Yeah, I have them on some paper in my bag… Do you want to do it tonight?" Oakley looked up excitedly. Uh-oh. Do what tonight? Charlie questioned, hoping it was homework related. Never mind. Neither Oakley nor Mercy would want to do homework whilst in their right minds.

Mercy grinned. "Well, seeing as we don't have school tomorrow, I don't think staying up late will be too big of a problem. Hey Charlie, are you in?"

Charlie rubbed one hand across his face. Well if they wanted to stay up late to do it, this definitely meant trouble. "Why do I have a feeling that this would get the three of us a one way ticket to detention?" He looked between faces of his best friends.

"We all know you don't have plans, Might as well" Oakley said with a grin.

"Pleeeeeeeeaaaaaaasssssse?" Mercy bit her bottom lip and shot him a classic Mercy puppy-dog look. Charlie weighed the benefits, he would hopefully be able to officially patch up things with Mercy, but he would probably have to stay up nearly all night, and risk being caught and spending an inordinate amount of time in detention. Well the choice was obvious.

"Why do I feel like we've already had this conversation before?" Oakley said grinning.

"Because we have, too many times…fine" Charlie conceded. Mercy whooped happily, drawing the eyes of the people sitting next to her. When they looked away, he continued. "I'll do it, but you have to let me finish my dinner first." He said, picking up his sandwich.

"Any more demands, my liege?" Oakley said bowing her head a little.

Charlie smiled, and with a royal air said, "Nothing that comes to mind. But if I think of something, you'll be the first to know, peasant." Oakley stuck out her tongue at him and he winked and continued to eat his sandwich.

"Good old Charlie. This is going to be great." Mercy said.

**Read and Review puh-lease!**

**A Nice Long Chapter is coming your way soon! Like Friday. **


	14. Chapter 14- The Day Doesn't End

**Author's Note**

**Yeah, I'm really sorry I'm late for updating. I got sick, didn't go to class yesterday and then got attacked by Zombies… Long story… Anyway, unfortunately I have joined the undead. :(**

**Anyway, to hopefully make-up for that I'm updating a really long chapter today. It's also rather narration heavy. So not a lot of dialogue but a whole lotta random shenanigans. **

**So on with the story -**

**Chapter 14- The Day Doesn't End 'till you go to Bed**

Charlie walked up to the stairs to his dorm at five in the morning. He tried to be very quiet so he wouldn't disturb his roommates. Opening the door very slowly, he could make out the sleeping figures of the marauders in the early morning light. He went in and closed the door behind him. A couple steps later disaster struck. Charlie tripped out of nowhere, he let out a yelp and he went down. He skidded across the floor and crashed hard into James's trunk in front of his bed.

All hell broke loose; James bolted upright with a shout and leaped onto Sirius's bed who yelled in agony because James had driven his elbow into his stomach. Peter fell off his bed and started screaming like a little girl. Charlie put his face in his hands.

Remus looked over at a clock near his bed, and the he sat up like a zombie; he kind of looked like one, too. Brandishing a textbook in one hand and his wand in the other he yelled, "YOU TOSSERS! It's five in the morning." Everyone was quiet, sans Sirius who was still groaning.

Remus turned on the light with a flick of his wand. He squinted at what was going on around him. Charlie was sitting on the floor, James was hugging Sirius, Sirius was trying to pry him off and Pete was huddled in his blanket under Sirius's bed with his head poking out looking up at Remus. "What the hell are you idiots on about?" he said a little calmer, putting his book down.

James finally released Sirius from the bear hug. "Well, I was sleeping and I heard someone yelp and then my whole bed moved… so I jumped over to Sirius's bed to… err… wake him up?"

"You impaled me with your elbow, you arse!" Sirius shoved James off his bed, and James just sat on the floor.

"I'm sorry…" Charlie began. "I was trying not to wake you guys up, but I tripped over something." He looked toward the door, but he saw no obstacle that he possibly could've tripped over. James smiled sheepishly and ruffled his hair.

"Oh yeah. Sirius and I noticed that you weren't back at like 11 so we set a tripping hex in front of the door for a laugh… but I guess we fell asleep." He grinned up at Sirius. Charlie felt annoyed, but Remus growled and looked downright murderous.

"Anyway, why did you get in so late?" James asked, looking at Charlie trying to deflect Remus's evil glare.

"Mercy and Oakley roped me into something stupid, it took longer than Oakley expected."

"What were you doing?" asked Peter, who had finally emerged from underneath the bed.

"You'll see." Charlie said, getting to his feet and then collapsing on his bed. In a few seconds he was asleep.

The other boys looked at him oddly. "He could fall asleep in a coffin" James said.

"Lucky fellow," Sirius said with a grin. Remus turned off the light and crawled back into bed to try to go back to sleep. In a whisper Sirius said, "What do you guys think about trying to find out what Charlie was up to?"

"Are you serious? But it's so early" Peter said quietly.

Sirius smirked "Are you kidding? I'm always Sirius."

James hit him with a pillow. "Yeah, alright. Let's do it." James grinned and he, Sirius, and Peter all got dressed and crept down the stairs to the common room.

888

James, Peter, and Sirius ran around the school but couldn't find anything out of the ordinary. It was around seven now and by this time people were started to emerge from their houses. Soon a rumor started buzzing around. People were gathering in groups, grabbing their friends to tell them the news. James, Sirius, and Peter stopped near a couple of 3rd year Hufflepuffs to see what was going on.

"Hey, did you hear? Someone snuck up to the astronomy tower and made a humongous slide," a slim blonde girl that James didn't recognize.

Her dark-haired friend looked baffled. "What?"

"Yeah I know! And no one knows who did it." James shook his head. He had a feeling he knew who was behind it.

"Do you think the teachers will let us use it?" Sirius met James's gaze. James grinned, regardless, he wasn't about to let a silly thing like teachers stop them from checking it out.

"I think Flitwick said it was safe, but McGonagall said whenever they find out who did it, they will be in a ton of trouble."

James and Sirius ran toward the Astronomy tower followed by Peter, who was managing to keep up with them rather well. They were intercepted along the way by an irritated Professor McGonagall.

"Potter, Black, and Pettigrew! I don't suppose you have any idea how a giant slide ended up on the balcony of the Astronomy tower?"

"Why do you always assume when something happens that it is us?" asked Sirius indignantly.

"Because you have never given me any reason to think otherwise Mr. Black." She said sternly.

James grinned. "As much as we would like to take credit for this one, I can honestly say we had nothing to do with it."

"Really, Professor!" Peter said earnestly.

McGonagall sized the three up with narrow eyes. She sighed. "Well, seeing as I have no proof, I'm going to let you off this time. Behave yourselves." She said finally walking away.

"Let's go get Remus! We should try it out." James said excitedly.

"Say, you don't think that this is why Charlie got in so late?" Sirius had a curious expression on his face.

"Well Charlie will probably still be up there. We can ask him." James said. And they ran back toward the Gryffindor common room. After climbing through the portrait hole, they saw Oakley and Mercy by the fire.

"I'll meet you guys up there. I'm going to ask those to what happened so don't wake Charlie up again." James said. "And don't anger the beast. I thought Remus was going to strangle the lot of us this morning."

Sirius grinned. "I wouldn't dream of it." Peter and Sirius headed for the stairs up to their dorm. "Pete, so how mad do you think he would be if we drenched him?"

James shook his head and walked over to Oakley and Mercy. Mercy was curled up in a ball and yawned. She had bags under her eyes, and she was staring at Oakley concernedly. Oakley was perkier than usual. She was drinking what appeared to be black coffee and between sips was a consistent flow of chatter.

"Morning" James said cheerily. Mercy looked up and smiled. Just as she opened her mouth to respond Oakley leaped into the air.

"Hullo James! Excellent to see you. Absolutely spiffing. Marvelous morning, isn't it? I love mornings! Don't you love it when you wake up and find out that you didn't die in the middle of the night?" Mercy looked at James sympathetically. James was staring at Oakley slightly baffled and Oakley took another swing of coffee and continued. "Mercy doesn't really like the taste of coffee for reasons unknown to those who walk the earth. Is it even possible for her not to like it? I mean her dad drinks probably two pots of the stuff every morning and her mum likes to have a cup or two once in a while. Is liking the taste of coffee genetic? Because if it is she should totally-" James mouth dropped open a little bit. But Oakley kept going, hardly bothering to take a breath as she discussed Mercy's distaste of coffee with herself.

Mercy rubbed her eyes and finally cut off her monologue. "Oakley, give me that coffee before you talk him to death." Mercy said, grabbing the cup out of her hand. Oakley stopped her chatter and sat down on the couch grumpily. James stared at her with wide eyes. "Morning James. Oakley and I didn't get much sleep last night so she thought it would be a grand idea to drink coffee."

"Riiiiiiight… Well I actually came over to ask you guys about a certain slide from the top of the Astronomy Tower." James said as Mercy vanished the liquid from the mug.

"Is it all over the school already? Did the teachers flip? Do they know who did it? Are the students allowed to ride it? Can we-" Mercy smacked her upside the head with a pillow.

"You can't prove we had anything to do it," Mercy said smirking at the indignant expression on Oaks face. "But anyway, this story sounds interesting. What news do you bring from the outside world good sir?"

James explained what he, Sirius, and Peter had found out about the slide. As he was talking a surly-looking Remus was being dragged down the stairs of the boys dorms by Sirius followed by a laughing Peter.

"…the teachers are confused, they thought it was us. I think Flitwick says it's safe. A lot of students are heading over to try it out." He said grinning. "Would it be safe to assume it was you guys?"

Oakley smirked, "Well, you know what they say about assuming. I makes an-"

Mercy shoved her pillow over Oakley's face again, effectively cutting off another one of Oakley's bursts. "So the teachers are actually going to let the students use it? That's awesome… but a little surprising."

Oakley pushed the pillow off her face and looked over at James dubiously. "The teachers are okay with this... you are serious, right?"

"Actually I'm Sirius." Sirius said grinning; Oakley rolled her eyes. "Black, heaven help you if I hear that joke one more time." Sirius winked at her, and she chucked the pillow at him, which he dodged, grinning cheekily.

"Yeah the teachers are letting students use it, but they said that if they find whoever's behind it, there would be trouble." James said to Mercy, because she appeared to be the only one still listening.

"Well let's go get Charlie and finally try it out!" Oakley said as she stood and sprinted up the stairs to the boys' dorm.

"Wait, you guys went through all that effort but didn't even use it?" James asked in amazement.

"I thought it would be more fun when Oakley was a little more lucid. Unfortunately, I'm afraid she might be quite a bit worse. Lesson learned: No more caffeine for Oaks." Mercy said, looking over at Remus. Her eyes widened as she tried in vain to not to smile his moody expression. "You know it might do you some good." She said. Remus shook his head.

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The slide was a hit with the Hogwarts students. All day kids of every house were running up the stairs and riding the tube back the ground. The more daring students, such as James, Sirius, and Oakley took it on headfirst while others (Charlie cough cough) slid feet first and tried to slow their decent with their hands.

However, at dinner time the slide barred its entrance of and after the final stragglers were out of the slide it seemed to disappear.

Charlie collected the now pocket-sized slide and put it at the bottom of his trunk.

"We are totally doing that again." Oakley announced as she, Mercy, and Charlie walked into the Gryffindor common room.

"We can't do the same thing twice." Mercy said, stretching and letting out a long yawn. "I'm exhausted; at least clean-up was easier than putting that monstrosity together. I'm going to bed."

"But it's only 9:30!"Oakley said, her face fighting a yawn. Of course, Mercy could still see her trying to suppress it.

"We were up all night; I think I'm allowed to go to bed early tonight. We have class tomorrow." Mercy said.

"Night Merce." Charlie said as she went up the stairs to the girls' dorm. He turned to address Oakley. "She's right, I'm off to bed. And we are not doing anything like that for a looooooooong time." He said, and then clapped her on the shoulder. "Night Oaks."

He then went up to his dorm. Oakley stood in the middle of the common room staring into the fire, but then with a sigh of defeat meandered her way up to bed.

**Authors Note**

**Thanks for reading! Please let me know what you thought.**


	15. Chapter 15-It's Time to D-D-DDDD-Duel!

**Author's Note**

**Be very Proud, I didn't forget to update today.**

**Disclaimer- The idea of Harry Potter, his world, and pals was not born of my feeble mind.**

**On With the Story-**

Chapter 15- It's Time to D-D-D-D-DDDDDDD-Duel!

Oakley and Mercy were walking back to the common room, brooms in hand, after the rigorous Quidditch practice. The thought of a shower was calming for Oakley, and her body relaxed as she imagined the hot water beating against her skin. Mercy was fiddling with her wristband as she chattered about what the weather was going to be like at the big Slytherin game. They turned the corner and entered new hallway. But they found they weren't alone.

There stood Nadine Montgomery with three Slytherin cronies; Oakley could vaguely remember a couple of their names from a social gathering at her grandmother's ... She knew for sure one was Avery, another Macabre or something. It started with an M. The last was a giant blonde, but she couldn't recall his name.

Nadine was the first to speak. "Well, well, well. Look who we have here. A blood traitor and her pet mudblood."

Mercy turned bright red, while Oakley paled. With a scowl, Mercy growled, "What do you want?"

"Oh look, the mudblood is angry! Touchy, touchy today aren't we? So where are two Gryffindorks headed on this fine evening?"

"Away from you slimy gits." Mercy retorted.

"Have a good Quidditch Practice? It's funny how hard Macintosh is pushing you guys just so you can lose this weekend" She said with a high obnoxious chuckle. The rest of the group standing behind her laughed as well.

"I think you'll be surprised." Oakley said simply. She was sensing the energy in the corridor growing, and she didn't want to be around if it burst. Under her breath she whispered to Mercy, "Merce, let's get out of here." She looked at the look in Mercy's eyes. Mercy looked like she knew that this would end in a fight. Oakley tried to think of some way to get them out.

Nadine laughed again, "I think this time it's you who will surprised." She and all the other Slytherins pulled out their wands.

Mercy laughed. "That was just about the tackiest thing I have ever heard." She looked over to Oakley, trying to tell her something without words… But Oakley didn't understand.

Oakley took a step away from the Slytherins. If she and Mercy could make a run for it, they could duck through a tapestry that would take them close to the common room. "Why don't we just settle this on the Quidditch pitch?" She said.

Nadine cocked her head to the side. "Oh, you're running away? I always knew your house was just full of bloody cowards."

Mercy rolled her eyes, "Bitch, please! You just aren't worth the effort." Oakley shot Mercy a guarded look. She might have just pushed them over the edge.

"That's too bad." Nadine sneered and raised her wand as did the boys standing behind her. "Too bad you won't be around for the match." Mercy and Oakley dropped their brooms, and hastily tried to pull out their own wands but not before the first spell was launched.

"_Diffendo_!" Nadine's voice rang out down the hall. A beam of yellow launched straight toward Mercy's face, she barely sidestepped it and it grazed her hair. Oakley snarled and finally getting a grip on her own wand yelled, "_Petrificus_ _Totalus_!" Her spell missed Nadine and hit the big blonde who stiffened like a board and fell to the ground.

Soon both sides were engaged in a high heat but amateur dual. Spells were bouncing every which direction. Oakley was disarmed by Nadine, but then she charged and jumped on top of her grabbing her hair and punching her in the face. Mercy stunned Avery but the last one yelled in his low voice, "_Flagerate_!" Mercy didn't dodge quickly enough and took the full force of the spell to her wand arm. She yelled in agony, and dropped to the floor holding her arm.

Suddenly, they heard footsteps running toward them. Justin Sekata came running down the hallway and without a word sent a red stunner that hit the last male Slytherin in the chest, he fell to the floor. He ran up to Nadine and Oakley and pulled Oakley off of Nadine and stood between them, with his wand pointed at Nadine.

"What on earth is going on here?" Professor Flitwick ran as fast as his short legs would carry him up to the surly looking teenagers. He observed the carnage of the corridor trying to piece together what had happened, Avery, Mulciber, and Carrow were stunned on the floor. Justin was standing between Nadine and Oakley, Nadine had a fat lip and a bloody nose and Oakley a swollen eye and some claw marks on her cheek. Mercy with her hair cut raggedly in the front was trying to staunch blood running down her arm and onto the floor.

"We were trying to get back to the common room after practice and these loonies jumped us!" Oakley jabbed her finger in the direction of the Slytherins.

Nadine looked imploringly at the professor, "Please sir, we were only minding our own business when Mercy and Oakley came here and started picking a fight."

"That isn't even remotely true" Mercy said through clenched teeth.

Flitwick looked to Justin who shook his head, "Sorry Professor, I just got here. Mercy and Oakley were at practice with me, and I only saw the end of the fight, not who started it."

"Well, then I will be taking 15 points from each house, you three go get yourselves patched up, and do not fight in the corridors." Flitwick said to Oakley, Mercy, and Nadine. Flitwick revived the Slytherins and instructed them to go straight to their common room. Nadine stalked off by herself, while Oakley waited for Mercy.

Justin walked up to Mercy and asked, "What was that fight about?"

"I think that the Slytherins are trying to take out some of the members of the Quidditch team" Mercy said.

"They must be scared that they are going to lose." Oakley said smugly, but Justin looked concerned.

"That means that they are getting desperate, which means they are willing to do whatever they can to take us out." He said, and stared down the corridor thoughtfully. "I'm going to go up to the common room and talk to Trina so we can warn the other members of the team. I'll take your brooms."

"That would be great, thanks. See ya later." Oakley said. She extended her hand to Mercy which Mercy took and she rose to her feet. Justin, with their brooms in hand, headed to the common room.

They set off at a relatively slow pace; Mercy was trying to make sure she wasn't leaving a trail of blood for Filch to clean up. Oakley was glad, the last thing they needed now was the crazy caretaker on their case. When they got to the Hospital Wing, Nadine was nowhere to be found but Madam Pomfrey tsked at them and sat them down in chairs next to each other. She conjured an ice pack and gave it to Oakley in an attempt to slow the swelling of her eye while she moved over to Mercy to deal with the blood running down her arm.

Oakley watched with her one eye not covered by and ice pack as Madam Pomfrey worked on Mercy's arm. The Flaggerate Spell left deep wounds that twisted up her arm. She was dousing it in what Oakley thought was Essence of Dittany. She vaguely remembered that was what Madam Pomfrey had used on Charizard earlier that term. Mercy was at least sitting up through the process, although she winced as the potion touched her arm every so often. Madam Pomfrey wrapped up her arm in a white bandage, "Now I want you to stop by tomorrow morning before breakfast so I can redo the bandage. You are not to take your arm out of the sling unless you are sleeping, got it?"

"But, Quidditch…"

"Absolutely not until I give you the okay."

"Yes Ma'am." Mercy said resignedly, and stood up gingerly rubbing her arm. Madam Pomfrey dabbed some potion on Oakley's scratches that caused them to immediately scab over. She then took a look at Oakley's eye said it would be fine, but might be purple in the morning.

The girls thanked Madam Pomfrey but on their way out Charlie burst through the door looking frantic. "There you are!" He said, relieved to see them. But that first wave of relief was gone as quickly as it came as he looked at Mercy's arm in the sling and scratches on Oakley's face and her swollen eye.

"I heard you got into a fight, Quidditch, huh?" He said calmly, but it was a dangerous calm, like he could explode any minute. "You obviously found something better to do. Picking fights with the Slytherins. It's cool. I see where your priorities are."

"Charlie, that isn't even what happened." Oakley said, bewildered but really annoyed. "I would have thought you would have taken our side with it."

"Why can't you just give it up? Clearly this isn't worth it! I can't stand seeing people I care about get hurt, and if you can't give up this… this… masochism, I'm not going to just sit around and watch it happen."

Mercy was staring at Charlie's face rather blankly, like she was looking for something. "Charlie. What's going on?" she asked quietly. Charlie looked at her, his eyes flickering between hers.

"I just told you." He said through clenched teeth, but Oakley could see something other than anger in his face now. Sadness, maybe fear?

"No, I know what you said. What's really going on?" Mercy said, pushing for a real answer, but Oakley knew that she had pushed too far.

Charlie's face became guarded. He scowled, turned around, and walked out of the room.

**Alright, Review please!**


	16. Chapter 16- It's Dangerous to Go Alone

**Author's Note**

**Alright, the new chapter is coming your way! And here we meet one of my favorite people in this story! Of course you'll see why soon!**

**Anyway, I managed to be one of the Top ten Zombies in our on-campus Zombie Apocalypse game Bwah ha ha ha ha!**

**So it ended yesterday so now I have time to start writing new stuff. I have two new stories in development! And I am way excited for both of them.  
**

**Disclaimer- I do not own any rights to Harry Potter or anything that plays a role in his world. So yeah. **

**On with the Story!**

Chapter 16- It's Dangerous to Go Alone

Oakley splashed cold water on her face. It was early morning; 7:30 or thereabout, around a half hour until breakfast. She took in her now freshly washed face. The scratches that Nadine had left were looking better; she ran her finger along the gashes that were mostly healed. But her attention was mostly focused on the bright purple shiner right underneath her eye. It didn't look so bad, but she was already starting to prepare to convince anyone who asks that she does not have an abusive boyfriend. There were some spells that could probably get rid of it all together, but Oakley thought she'd just leave it.

She walked back into the dorm. Lily and Mary had already left and Blake McLellan was brushing her long, curly light brown hair. She turned as Oakley walked into the room.

"Hey Oakley." Blake said. Oakley smiled. Blake hadn't been in the dorm when Mercy and Oakley had gotten in last night. She had a tendency to sneak around the castle late at night with some of her friends from Hufflepuff, and they were pretty good at not getting caught, something Mercy and Oakley had yet to learn. "You've got a wee bit of a shiner there. Nadine got you good." Blake said, in her heavy Irish accent.

"How'd you hear about that?" Oakley asked. She had known that the members of the Quidditch team knew, as did Mary, Lily, and Rachel who had all been upstairs when Oakley and Mercy had come back from the hospital wing. All three had been sympathetic but Lily shook her head in disapproval. Oakley suspected the only reason that she claimed to dislike Quidditch had much to do with a certain messy haired chaser. Having sat with Lily, Mary, Mercy, and Rachel at one of the matches, she knew Lily was as prone to excessive cheering as the other Gryffindors.

"It's all over the school. I heard some kids talking about it in the Hufflepuff common room last night." Blake said.

Oakley rolled her eyes. The Hogwarts gossip network is taking its job much too seriously. She would have to jinx Bertha Jorkins's tongue to the roof of her mouth when she got the chance.

"Anyway, do you need me to walk you guys anywhere? Trina said members of the Quidditch team shouldn't be wandering around alone until after the big game." Blake said, but her eyes kept drifting to her clock.

"We might be a while, so you go ahead. I mean Merce isn't even up yet." Oakley gestured to Mercy's bed, the only one still occupied in the room.

Blake's eyes flickered over to the bed. "Right, I'll see you in class then?" She said, raising an eyebrow.

"Yup, see you." Oakley said. She walked over to Mercy's bed, but what she found was not pretty. Mercy's arm was soaked red. The curse wound must have reopened while she was sleeping.

"Merlin" Oakley murmured. She shook Mercy's good arm. "Merce. Mercy. Get up." She whispered hurriedly. Mercy groaned but didn't open her eyes. Well hopefully that means that she isn't unconscious. But she had to get up before the bleeding worsened. Oakley shook her a little harder. "Mercedes Erin Baines! You get up right now!" She said louder.

Mercy's eyes cracked open. "Eh?" She sat up, and let out a long yawn.

"You! You're covered in blood!" Oakley pulled Mercy into a sitting position. Mercy looked sleepily at her sheets, taking in the blood's presence. "Hey look at that. Red. Red so pretty" She picked at her soaked bed clothes.

Oakley stared at her. Mercy could be loopy in the morning sometimes but this was ridiculous. "I'm taking you to the nurse."

"I'm sooooooo tired," Mercy groaned and yawned, laying her head back down and curling into a ball. Oakley took a look at her; Mercy was wearing a formally white t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants but her shirt had patches where her blood had soaked through.

Oakley pulled her out of the bed, avoiding the blood as best she could. "Now Mercy; I'll grab you uniform and books. I don't want you bleeding all over them." She said.

888

Mercy sighed in exasperation as Oakley practically dragged her to the hospital wing. Of course she didn't fight back. Frankly, the combination of having just woken up and blood lost were not exactly improving her reaction time.

When she got to the hospital wing Madam Pomfrey began fussing over her. She forced Mercy into a chair and forced a blood replenishing potion into her hand and didn't move until Mercy had downed the whole vile. She then pulled out her wand and began muttering spells.

"Miss Milova, you best be off to class, Miss Baines will join you after I get her wound to re-close and I bandage it," The busy woman said. Mercy saw Oakley look over at her

"Your books for the day are in your bag with your uniform." Oakley said, putting Mercy's bag down next to Mercy's bed, while hiking her own bag up her shoulder. Oakley looked a little too concerned; Mercy wondered if there was something else bothering her. "Thanks ole mum, I owe you one" Mercy said.

"I'm going to go down for breakfast. I'll see you whenever you can make it to class." Oakley opened her mouth to continue, but she shut it, waved, and walked out.

After a while, the bleeding had finally slowed and Madam Pomfrey re-bandaged her arm. Mercy changed gingerly into her school uniform, and after she got her robes on, Madam Pomfrey put her in a sling and told her to come back up after lunch to get new bandages.

Mercy realized that she had already missed half of double potions. Of course it would be awkward to walk in so late but she really couldn't find a good reason not to go. She sighed and walked down the stairs toward the dungeons.

**Review if you can!**


	17. Chapter 17- Bloody Nuisance

**Authors Note**

**Hello world! It's starting to get to be glorious outside. It was like 70 degrees on campus a few days ago. So Gorgeous… Sigh. **

**Anyway, I got a tank of reviews from someone called… **_Luna the HP fan_? **Thank you sooooo much! I really appreciate feedback. Siriusly, it is much appreciated! And don't worry, I have full intention to finish this story… but I'm not going to apologize for the cliffie. Sorry not sorry :P But I have full intention to keep up with the story and I will try to answer all questions within the story. If it looks like I'm leaving a loose end, let me know and I will do my best to make sure it is tied. **

**Mandatory Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter… yeah. **

**On with the Story!**

Chapter 17- Bloody Nuisance

Remus was sitting at breakfast with his fellow Marauders when their usual chattering was interrupted by a small commotion. Remus looked over to see Oakley and Charlie arguing not so quietly a few seats down from him on his left. Charlie's voice was very low, and he looked angry. Oakley's voice was slightly loud and shrill. One of her eyes was purpled, that must have been from her fight with Montgomery. Oakley wasn't talking quite loudly enough for Remus to make out what she was saying over the din. Her eyes were watery but that didn't seem to faze Charlie. Remus didn't see Mercy there either. He wondered where she was, hoping she didn't get hurt that badly in her fight the night before.

Remus was finally able to make a bit of the conversation.

"Why can't you just let us have fun? Be ourselves?" Oakley said. Charlie rolled his eyes.

"Sorry if I'm not going to just listen to this lecture from someone who still lets her mum pick out her clothes." He shot back. Oakley flinched, her face going white. She glared angrily at Charlie.

"At least my parents fucking care." She snarled while stepping over the bench, grabbed her bag. She walked stiffly out of the room. Charlie was red in the face, and looked insanely hurt and then slightly ashamed. He began to play with his food and looked up and made eye contact with Remus. He shot him a dirty look and looked away. Remus was slightly taken aback, what had he done to deserve that?

It seemed to him that without Mercy around, Charlie and Oakley seemed to argue a lot.

But Mercy wasn't in class either. Remus's eyes scanned the potion's dungeon looking for her wild red hair, but only finding the darker red hair of Lily. Oakley was sitting quietly at her desk, not talking nor moving: something very uncharacteristic of her.

Charlie was hunched over on his desk across the classroom from her with his chin resting on his crossed arms. He sat purposefully facing a different direction than Oakley. Slughorn began his lesson, and Remus sank into note taking mode, but his thoughts lingered on Mercy.

888

Mercy flinched as the door to the potions classroom creaked loudly as she pushed it open. Everyone in the class looked around at the noise and stared at her. Mercy blushed uncomfortably at the sudden attention and made eye contact with Remus, who smiled at her. The corners of her mouth curved upward slightly and she winked quickly but then she turned to her professor. Slughorn, who had stopped talking when he lost his students attention, took in the sight of Mercy and her heavily bandaged arm.

"Mercedes m'lass, you're very late. Come take your seat so I can keep class going," he said in his booming voice. Mercy sheepishly walked over and put her stuff in the vacant seat next to Oakley.

Slughorn continued his lesson, and Oakley pushed her notebook over to Mercy's side of the desk and began whispering, gesturing at her notes. In truth, Oakley was explaining what had happened at breakfast, but Mercy started copying down Oakley's notes to make it appear like Oakley was simply explaining what she had missed. As Mercy finished coping down Oakley's notes, sparse as they were, she looked thoughtfully over at Charlie. He was diligently taking notes as usual, but making an effort to resist looking back at Mercy. Still, Mercy caught an occasional glance in her direction. Charlie's face was red and his teeth were clenched. It was a rare expression which Mercy had come to associate with trouble at home. Perhaps something happened again between his parents… she shook her head slowly, trying to shoo away assumptions. He might just still be riled up from his fight with Oakley. She would try to ask him again later, If he wasn't still furious.

Potions dragged by slowly, Slughorn was simply lecturing on poison antidotes and new techniques that Mercy felt were rather self-explanatory. The day on a whole lagged horribly. Mercy was praying that Madam Pomfrey would deem her able to play in the big Slytherin/Gryffindor match.

Trina tracked her down after her last class. "Baines, wait up!" Mercy turned as Trina elbowed her way through the throng of people crowding the hallway. "Do you have a second?" Trina asked, looking slightly disheveled. Mercy nodded. "I need to know if I need to call in Taylor to sub for you in the match tomorrow."

Mercy sucked in a deep breath, "Well… Madam Pomfrey has to give me the okay. I should be fine" Mercy said, but she wasn't actually sure if she would be allowed to play and it probably showed on her face.

Trina looked at her apologetically, "Mercy, I'm sorry, but I just don't know what to do with you at this point. I don't really have time to break in a back-up but I can't risk putting you in if you are still hurt."

Mercy shook her head. "Trina, none of this is on you. I will respect your decision whatever it ends up being. I'm actually going up to the hospital wing right now to see if I can at least take off this damn sling. To be honest, it's been a bloody nuisance all day."

Trina's eyes shifted past Mercy's face as she gazed off into the distance for a while. She broke the silence suddenly, "Would you mind if I were to come up to the hospital wing with you? If I can figure out how badly you are injured, I should be able to decide sooner."

Mercy thought for a second, "Yeah I guess. But we might be late for dinner."

"That's fine. I won't be able to eat proper until we get this sorted."

888

Mercy and Trina arrived in the hospital wing, and as if on cue, Madam Pomfrey bustled up. Trina explained the situation to Madam Pomfrey, who listened but insisted that she needed to be sure Mercy would be alright.

Mercy made a request. "If my arm has stayed closed all day and is still fine tomorrow morning, can I play? I will be careful. I promise." She said imploringly.

Madam Pomfrey's expression softened. "Alright dear. If that is the case, you have my permission on one condition. If at any time during the match it reopens or starts to hurt, Miss Macintosh is responsible for removing you from play."

Trina nodded. Madam Pomfrey removed Mercy's bandage. The wound had indeed stayed closed all day and was healing very nicely according to Madam Pomfrey. She put on a fresh bandage and also allowed Mercy to go without the sling. Mercy and Trina set out from the Hospital wing and reached a fork in the corridor.

"Mercy, there will be an emergency team meeting around eight in the common room. Please see if you can make it." She said as she marched down the path to the great hall.

Mercy stood in silence for a second, and headed the opposite way. She was headed for the library. Upon arrival, she wandered to the far corner to her usual study place to find, as she had hoped, a preoccupied Charlie studying. She carefully walked over and pulled out a chair across from him and sat down. Charlie glanced up at her and with a sad look in his eyes, looked away. She looked at him, and he stared determinedly at his books, but no longer reading.

Mercy took a breath and said quietly "Hey." Charlie looked up at her and swallowed.

"Hullo" They looked at each other awkwardly. Mercy could tell that he was as unsure of what to say as she was.

"Charlie, I really am sorry. But I think you are taking this whole thing quite ridiculously." She said carefully, watching his face. Charlie's eyes flickered back and forth between hers.

He sighed. "I know, I've been bang out of order with this. But this Quidditch thing is dangerous. The only thing I can see is you guys getting hurt. For no good reason"

"Charlie." She said "I think it's _fun_, pushing limits, seeing what I can do if I put my mind to it. That's what sports are. People working hard to become the best they can be. What if I were a baseball player? They may not fly around, so the danger of falling isn't as critical, but they work hard and a lot of things could go wrong. I want to be the best version of myself. Don't you want that too?" She asked.

Charlie rolled his eyes. "I guess. But aren't there more safe ways for you push to boundaries and have fun?"

Mercy's mouth contoured into a tight line. "I just can't help but think that us playing Quidditch isn't the only thing bothering you." Charlie's face reddened and he again started clenching his teeth. "See, you are making that face again. What is going on?"

Charlie looked away, and started to fiddle with the pages of his book. Mercy sat quietly, looking at him. She decided not to say anything, and hope that he would eventually break the silence. Seconds ticked by, and Mercy grew impatient.

She stood up and began to walk away, but as she started down one of the isles of books, she heard Charlie call her name.

"Mercy, wait!" He said coming up behind her and grabbing her good wrist. "I do want to tell you, I really do." He said, urgently. "Just not here." He let her wrist fall and looked around. They were getting the evil eye from Madam Pince.

"Well, where do you want to go?" She asked. Charlie looked back at her.

"Here's the thing. I bet Oakley told you what I said at breakfast, and I'm sure she's still mad. But I'm not angry with her anymore, and what I'm going to tell you, I want her to know. So do you think we could talk? Like, the three of us?"

Mercy crinkled her eyebrows. "We have a team meeting at 8 in the common room. I think Trina will want us to go to bed early, but maybe we can sneak down to the garden after it's over." She said.

Charlie shook his head. "No you guys should get lots of sleep. If I can't stop you from playing, then I should at least force you to take care of yourself."

Mercy rolled her eyes, "Well what about you, huh? If there is something bothering you we can listen. We will."

"Tomorrow. After the match, in the garden. I promise." He said.

"Okay. We'll be there." Mercy said. Instinctively, she hugged him. "But I can't promise that Oakley won't jinx you into next month." She said as she let go.

Charlie sighed. "I didn't mean it. I was sorry the moment it came out of my mouth."

Mercy shrugged. "She is a little touchy about home." The two walked to the Great Hall for dinner.

**Hey… Heh heh hey!**

**Review please! Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.**


	18. Chapter 18- The Exchange of Chocolate

**Author's Note **

**Here's the next chapter yo! **

**Disclaimer- I do not have the rights to Harry Potter, The characters or the world they inhabit. **

**Onward!**

Chapter 18- The Exchange of Chocolate

Oakley sat with most of the other members of the Gryffindor Quidditch team awkwardly. Trina was a half hour late for the meeting, which was peculiar to say the least. The team had gathered in the corner of the common room, sitting in a circle of wooden chairs.

Greg and Ash were talking about nerves, both of them were getting a little tense for their first match since joining. Mercy and James were discussing the Slytherin team's typical strategy, but Oakley, wasn't really invested in the conversation. She was instead looking at Justin, who was pacing back and forth, shooting a look at the Portrait hole every time someone would walk in. When it turned out not to be Trina, he would clench his teeth and look at his feet.

"Oakley. Hey Oaks!" Mercy said pulling on her arm. Oakley's attention snapped back to James and Mercy.

"Wha- What'd you say?" Oakley asked.

"James just asked you if you were nervous… but you weren't paying attention." Mercy said smiling. She looked past Oakley to glance at Justin. James followed her gaze. "Justin looks worried." She said as she furrowed her eyebrows.

"It is a bit odd isn't it? Trina is never late." James said thoughtfully. "Oi! Sirius, Get over here!" He called across the common room, where Sirius was enchanting the fire to make rude gestures as Peter watched. Remus was with them but he was dutifully doing his homework, as usual.

"What?" Sirius called back. He put his wand away and he walked over and took a vacant seat next to James. He and James started whispering back and forth. Oakley made out the words, "Find… Map…game" but she didn't make out any other words. Sirius stood up and saluted James.

"Anything else, Commander?" He asked. James stood up as well.

"At ease." Sirius dropped out of his salute. "You may bring the Privates Pettigrew and Lupin. If you can convince Moony to leave his homework behind." James said with a grin. Sirius grinned back. "Yessir." And with that he walked back to the fire. After a couple seconds and what looked like an exchange of a chocolate bar between Peter and Remus, Sirius ran up the stairs coming back down with a piece of parchment and he, Peter, and a reluctant Remus left the common room.

Oakley looked at James, "What was that about?"

James shook his head. "They're just going to try to track Trina down." Oakley exchanged a dubious look with Mercy, which James caught.

"Really! That's what I asked Sirius to do." He said earnestly.

"Well then, what was that thing about the map?" Oakley asked.

"Well, if I told you that, I'd have to Oblivate you." He said. James then turned to Justin. "Hey, Justin. Since you are the senior member of the team, do you have anything to say?" He asked. Oakley rolled her eyes at James's deflection, but turned to look at Justin all the same.

He looked back at James. "I'm not the captain." Justin said simply.

"Yeah, but surely Trina mentioned what she wanted to talk today with you." Ash said. Everyone looked at Ash who squirmed uncomfortably under everyone's gaze. He continued "I watch you guys discuss 'tactics' after nearly every practice." He grinned mischievously at the word 'tactics' and Justin looked slightly uncomfortable. It made Oakley smile though; maybe James was having some unnecessary influence over little Ash. Trina is going to have her hands full of troublemakers.

Justin looked at the team apprehensively before talking. "Alright team, Trina and I have been talking about what happened to Oakley and Mercy in the corridor the other day. It looks like the Slytherin team is desperate to take us out." Everyone watched him. He paced back and forth as he talked. "We think that the Slytherins might resort to very dirty tactics within the match itself. Trina has been seeking out some of the Gryffindors who were good at try-outs but not the best to form a reserve team. For the past couple of years, captains have opted out of training the reserve but Trina has decided that they will join half the practices and they will sub in and out of drills and on rare occasion participate in scrimmages."

Greg looked nervous. "Is it possible that you will ever start the reserve instead of us during a match?" He asked.

"You guys shouldn't have anything to worry about. You all have fought hard for your positions, and you earned them. As long as you give us no reason to think otherwise, Trina won't switch you out." Justin said.

"'So, was that all you had to talk to us about?" James asked.

Justin shook his head, "I don't think so, I'm fairly certain there was something else. But I don't know what Trina was up to."

Just then, Remus, Peter, and Sirius walked into the common room, followed by Trina. They walked up to the team, and Trina began talking. "Sorry I'm so late. I had just tracked down Taylor Kapowski and I was asking her if she could make sure to be able to play tomorrow in case Mercy is forced to sit out. As we were walking up the stairs to the common room she tripped and fell down 3 flights of stairs."

The teammates muttered and groaned. Mercy's mouth opened in horror. "Merlin's pants! Is she alright?"

Trina nodded. "She should be fine, that is after her leg heals. She fractured it, but Madam Pomfrey mended it in a heartbeat. She's not going to be able to play though."

Justin groaned. "Well there goes our reserve seeker, looks like we'll just have to ask Trey if he can step in." Trina nodded. "Alright guys the reason I called this meeting is talk to you about-"

Justin cleared his throat. "I just told them about the reserve team." Trina's face was blank. "I knew you'd want them to hit the sheets so I told them…well… to save time." He said waving his hand in a circular motion.

Trina stared at him for a second, "Oh. Alright." and then smiled faintly, "Thanks." She then began pacing. "Well, the second thing is watch your backs and those of each other. The Slytherin strategy in the match has always been brutal. They are usually willing to do whatever it takes to win. That means they don't care about fouls if it ends up giving them an advantage. So make sure that you are paying attention. Take care of yourselves." Trina looked at each member of the team individually.

"All right team, I want you all to head up to bed soon, I need you guys to bring you're A-game tomorrow. I'll meet you all at breakfast and we'll head to the pitch together. Goodnight." She said, then walked over to a couch and collapsed. The team dispersed, Ash and Greg both went straight to their dorm rooms, and Justin went and sat with Trina on the couch. James, Mercy, and Oakley all stood up. James went over to where his fellow Marauders were standing.

"Come on, let's go up to our room." James said.

"Give me a second." Remus said. Sirius shrugged and he, James, and Peter walked up the stairs. Remus walked over to Mercy and Oakley.

"Hello" he said.

"Hey, Remus. How have you been?" Mercy said with a smile. Oakley rolled her eyes and muttered a "see you later" into Mercy's ear and headed up to their dorm room.

"I've been well. Better than you have of late." He said, looking at her arm.

Mercy shook her head. "It's not as bad as you've probably heard. I'm fine."

Remus looked at her. "You know, I was just wondering if you… um… want to go do something after the match tomorrow." He said.

Mercy racked her brain, vaguely remembering she had something she was supposed to do… what it was though, she couldn't remember. Damn it, Charlie. That's what it was. Mercy bit her lip, "Oh, I'm so sorry! I already have a thing I have to do." Remus looked disappointed, and averted his gaze. Mercy moved her head slightly to catch his eyes. "But maybe Sunday, or after I finish my thing?" She said hopefully, praying he wouldn't think she was snubbing him.

Remus nodded. "Yeah, alright. Sunday then? After lunch?"

"Sounds great." Mercy said with a grin. She looked over at the couch and saw Trina looking at her. As much as she wanted to keep talking, Trina looked at her expectantly.

"I really ought to go to bed before Trina assassinates me. I'll see you tomorrow maybe?" Mercy said.

"Yeah..," He said. He smiled and walked up toward the stairs to his dorm. But he stopped and turned to Mercy. "Oh, Mercy. Goodnight." Mercy nodded and smiled. "Thanks, and you too." Remus turned and went up to his dorm. Mercy stood still staring at a spot on the wall smiling happily until Trina let out a small "Ahem". Mercy's eyes finally broke out of the stare.

"Right…"She muttered and went off to bed.

**Alrighty then, Review if you have time!**


	19. Chapter 19- Destiny Flower

**Author's Note**

**...**

**...**

**Sorry, I forgot to update... Whoops. **

**Disclaimer: I have no rights to Harry Potter's world or characters.**

**Onward!**

Chapter 19- Destiny Flower

Oakley never had a problem with nerves. Or at least she thought. Usually it would Mercy who would complain about butterflies. But that night she was restless. Nothing really to do about it, she was going to bed earlier than she usually did, but for some reason even 5 hours later, while the other girls were sound asleep in their beds, Oakley was laying in her bed not in the least bit tired.

Oakley sighed. It was probably hopeless. She stood up and walked over to the window. The grounds were dark, dimly lit by the moon. It was about half full, maybe a little more than that. It would probably be full in around a week. It would be an ideal time to go exploring, with the light of the full moon; visibility wouldn't be as big a problem.

Behind her, she heard the creaking of the door opening. Oakley turned around in confusion. To her surprise Blake walked into the room. Oakley did a quick double take to Blake's four poster; she had just assumed that the blankets had her sleeping figure beneath them but now that she took a really good look at it… Oakley opened her mouth to speak but Blake put a finger to her lips. Oakley pointed to the door and mouthed the words "Common room". Blake nodded and walked back out the door. Oakley put on some slippers and followed her down the stairs to the common room.

Blake was standing at the bottom of the stairs. "Why're you still up? Don't cha have a big match today?" She said, curiously.

Oakley nodded, and then said, "I couldn't sleep, too wired. Why are _you_ getting in so late?" With a grin she continued. "What would our dear, sweet Lily say?"

Blake rolled her eyes, "She'd probably give me a responsibility lecture, 'this is bad for yer health, yada yada yada'. I was just with Dez, Kat, and Jess in the Hufflepuff common room. Dez had to go back to the Slytherin common room before Emma killed him. He's seeking for the Slytherin team tomorrow." She said.

Oakley looked at Blake in confusion. "What do you mean? Trina told us all the names the Slytherin Lineup, What happened to Flower?"

Blake stared blankly, "Destiny Flower? Yeah, he's the new seeker." Oakley looked stunned.

"He's… Dez… Destiny Flowers… Dude…I thought he was a girl."

Blake grinned. "His mum is crazy. She did one of those odd Muggle things and legally changed her name to Flowers. And for some reason she was convinced that Dez was going to be a girl, and when he was born she just kept the name."

Oakley exhaled. "That's rough."

"Yeah" Blake said, and let out a large yawn. "I think we both otta go to bed."

Oakley nodded and Blake walked up the stairs. Oakley curled up in a ball on the couch next to the fire. Staring at the flames she felt more relaxed. Oakley felt her eyes start to droop and she sank into the warm darkness.

Charlie woke up early on Saturday morning. He looked blurrily out of the window, and the sun had barely risen. He lay in bed for a few seconds, and he heard a rustling across the room. James, he saw, was sifting through some dirty laundry, presumably looking for his cleanest pair of pants.

It was then the Charlie remembered, it was Saturday, the day of the big Quidditch match. He got out of bed and got dressed. The rest of his roommates, besides James, were having a lie in. With a nod in Charlie's direction, James left the room. Charlie finished tying his shoes and followed shortly after.

As he walked down the stairs, he saw Oakley's figure curled up on the couch. He approached her and found her sleeping fitfully. Charlie made the mental judgment that she still had about half an hour before she really had to get moving. Charlie summoned his _Quidditch through the Ages_ book that Mercy had given him the year before from his bedside table and sat down in an adjacent chair and began to read.

Charlie found Quidditch sort of interesting, but he didn't like the fact that people put themselves in harm's way to score points. The rules and strategy involved were fascinating, but he wasn't really found of the danger factor.

Charlie stopped reading. "Danger factor. Most Gryffindors would leap at the chance," he thought. He fingered a piece of paper that he had slipped in back cover of his book. It was a letter from his father that he had gotten in the evening four days previously. He pulled it out, read it once. It had made him angry, no furious at first. But now he was just sad, and disappointed.

He had wanted to tell Mercy and Oakley, but then they had gotten in that stupid Quidditch fight with Montgomery. But Mercy could already tell that there was something wrong, and Oakley was also catching on. They were just too observant for their own good. The truth was, he was just afraid. Afraid to break down, to let himself be seen. Maybe he didn't belong in Gryffindor after all.

Oakley began to stir. She groaned, stretched, and sat up. She squinted around before her eyes focused on Charlie. "What's going o-o-o-on?" She asked as her mouth stretched in a huge yawn.

Charlie slipped the paper back in his book, and closed it. "I was just waiting for you to wake up; it's still a good bit before the match starts."

Oakley eyed him for a second. "I thought I said I was mad at you." She said.

Charlie shifted uncomfortably "Yeah. Right… Well I-… I'm sorry. What I said was low." He said as his eyes drifted to the ground.

"I know, I mean what I said was horrible too, so I guess we're square." She said. "Mercy said you had something you wanted to talk to us about. So are we still on for after the match, in the garden?"

Charlie sighed, "Provided you two don't get yourselves killed in the match today."

Oakley shot him a dirty look. "Listen to me." She said with so much contempt that Charlie startled. He made eye contact. "Mercy and I know exactly what we are getting ourselves into. Just trust our judgment. Even though something dangerous doesn't mean that it isn't worth doing. Quidditch is just something that we happen to be good at and when you are good at something, you work at it." Once she started it was always hard to get her to stop. Charlie looked at her sadly, and she kept talking.

"It was the one thing, THE ONE THING that I could do when I was a kid that got me away from my parents." She took a small breath and her expression softened. "In the sky, I feel free. Like I actually have control for once. And I don't want to lose it for anything. But you know what? I know you worry, and I understand. And we will be careful, I promise."

They sat in silence for a few seconds, which Charlie broke. "I know this means a lot to you "He said. "And yes it does make me nervous, but I'll try to back off a little."

"Thank Char" she said, giving him a small smile.

The sat for a few seconds not saying anything and then Charlie wondered how Oakley's parents had reacted to her playing. "What did your parents say?" Charlie said.

Oakley flinched. "What do you mean?"

"About you joining the team. Your dad was on the team when he went here, right?"

"I didn't say anything to them." She said looking down at the ground.

"Oakley!" Charlie explained in disbelief.

"They wouldn't let me play. Grandmama thinks Quidditch isn't 'lady-like' and you know how they would practically bend over backward to please her."

"Wha- wel- If they find out… You are going to get grounded forever!" Charlie sputtered.

"It's already like I'm grounded now. I don't get to do anything I want, can't go anywhere. I might as well do stuff here where they can't control me." Oakley stood up. "I'm going to go wake Merce up. We should head over to the Hospital Wing to get her arm checked one final time."

Charlie stood up as well. "I'm not dropping this yet."

Oakley sighed, "I know. But I really should get Mercy up now."

"Fine. I'll meet you at breakfast. Don't skip it this time." Oakley's unfortunate habit of skipping breakfast wasn't going to be a good idea today. Somehow, he didn't think her having a fainting spell while hundreds of feet in the air would be conducive to her playing.

Oakley smirked and curtsied, "As you wish m'lord."

"Oh, stuff it." He said shaking his head. Oakley crinkled her nose and walked up the stairs. Charlie watched until she disappeared from view. Her parents weren't really so bad. They weren't mean, per say, but they bent at every whim of Oakley's grandmother, trying to ensure Oakley didn't get left out of the inheritance. It was stupid though. If they had any idea what it did to her, maybe they would. He sighed and took his book up to the boys' dorm, where some of the other boys were starting to stir. He then went to the Owlery to send a letter. To his … father. But he really wasn't even sure he could call them that.

With a short whistle, his owl Sagitta drifted down to him from the rafter. He gave her an owl treat and as she consumed it, he tied his letter to her leg. He gently stroked her brown speckled feathers "Give this to… _father…_, but don't wait for a reply this time. I don't want to hear what he has to say." Sagitta hooted in response, and took off out the window. Charlie stared at her disappearing figure with a lump in his throat; he swallowed hard and headed down to the great hall for breakfast.

**Alright, New Chapter headed your way Friday. Be excited. **

**Review if you can find the time! :)**


	20. Chapter 20- Rough Game, Quidditch

**Authors Note-**

**Here it is: The illustrious chapter 20!- So what's new this week? I really have no idea...**

**Well now that I am here, I would like to address some of the reviews that I have gotten of late… and funny enough, they are all from the same person, Miss (or Mr. … I guess I can never really be sure… :P ) **_**Luna the HP fan**_**. It has to do with Charlie and Oakley's trouble at home. Now what kind of a person would I be if I spoiled that for ya? Not telling, mate. My lips are sealed, but if you keep following I promise to explain in the story! **

**As for the reason as to why Charlie and Oakley have trouble at home, like why I wrote it as a part of their back-story. Well I can answer that…because that is part of what shapes them as people, plot convenience, I was bored so I make horrible things happen to my made up people, just because. Take your pick I guess. Hopefully you think better of me to assume it's the third though :P or the last one. I usually have a reason for doing things.**

**Disclaimer- This yahoo *points at self* is not JK Rowling. So Therefore, this weirdo's writing *points at Microsoft Word Document* does not possess the hauntingly beautiful and perfectly polished quality that Ms Rowling's does. Nor does this dweeb *curls up in corner* own the rights to Harry Potter, world or Characters. **

**Now that all that's over with, ON WITH THE STORY!**

Chapter 20- Rough Game, Quidditch.

The Gryffindor team gathered in their locker room after breakfast. Mercy winced as Oakley wrapped her arm in an extra layer of bandages to go over the ones that were carefully placed by Madam Pomfrey. Having secured the permission of the nurse to play, she wasn't taking any chances. Oakley finished wrapping it and helped Mercy slip her arm and wrist guards on. Mercy smiled at her gratefully and looked around at all of her other teammates.

Trina and Justin were whispering back and forth in the corner, both relatively calm. James was sitting quietly, which in and of itself was a bad sign. He had a mischievous look on his face as he looked at Ash, who was a bundle of nerves. Ash's hands were shaking and he kept adjusting and readjusting his wrist guards. Greg was pacing throughout the room with a vacant expression.

Mercy peeked up at Oakley's face. She was as she usually was before high stake situations: unreadable. Mercy had faint butterflies in her stomach, but she figured it had more to do with the Slytherins than the pressure of catching the snitch.

Mercy was called from her thoughts due to a small commotion from across the room. Ash had unstrapped his wrist guard yet again but this time it began to float away. He looked at it alarmed and Mercy heard James's telltale laugh. Trina shot him an evil glare, but the prank seemed to have calmed Ash down a good bit. He stood on a bench and snatched his guard out of the air and began a conversation with James, who began to weave a tale of how he charmed Sirius's quill to fly around during class. Trina watched the events unfold, now with a grin on her face. She cleared her throat.

"Alright team. This is it, the big one. I think we can take 'em."

"I don't want to take them anywhere," James said wryly. Mercy giggled. Oakley punched him in the arm. "Staahp." She said, but it was through a large smile.

"As I was saying," Trina said, firing a challenging look at James, as if daring him to interrupt again. "If you don't listen to anything else I say, I want you to remember this one thing. We win as a team; we lose as a team so we play as a team."

She started pacing back in forth along the front of the room. "I am proud of all the work each of you has put in. I've seen great improvement in our chaser formations. The Slytherin keeper won't know what slipped past him. Our keeper, however, is damn near impenetrable. Combined with our dynamic beaters and our excellent seeker I'm sure this game will go well for us."

She stopped pacing and looked at each of her teammates individually. "Just watch each other's backs; the Slytherins are not going to hold back."

Her eyes lingered on Justin, who tilted his head from side to side to crack his neck. "Alright team, let's move out." The team grabbed their brooms and Ash and Justin, their bats and the marched into the field.

Mercy mounted her broom and kicked off the ground hard. She along with her scarlet clad teammates soared into the air, taking their respective places across from their emerald opponents.

Mercy looked at the boy floating across from her with confusion. She thought the other seeker would be a girl, and faintly wondered what had happened to Destiny Flower. The boy had hair only a little shorter than hers and was straw colored. He looked friendly, but his smile was too reminiscent of Sirius.

Booming over the roaring crowd was the voice of Ruby Mathias, the brunette Hufflepuff who announced the matches. "Welcome everyone to the first Quidditch match of the season, The Gryffindor Lions versus their slithering Slytherin Opponents. Both teams have been prepping for this match for weeks and it's sure to be a good match.

Mercy watched Trina and Emma Vanity, the Slytherin captain, shake hands. But to Mercy it looked to be more of a battle of who could break the other's hand.

Mercy began to drown out Ruby's commentary and instead focused on Madam Hootch. Hootch kicked open the chest containing the snitch, quaffle, and bludgers. Mercy watched as the bludgers zoomed out of the case and the snitch darted out flying straight up right in front of her and the other seeker's face. Mercy tried to follow it with her eyes, but it flew straight into the sun and to her dismay, she lost sight of it within a few seconds.

Madam Hootch mounted her broom, with the quaffle in arm and addressed all the players on the field. "I want a nice, CLEAN, game." Although she was talking to all the players, Emma Vanity got a pointed looked. She looked back innocently but Mercy wasn't buying it. It looked to her like Vanity had something up her sleeve.

Mercy heard the whistle from Madam Hootch, and watched as the quaffle zoomed upward, where it was quickly snatched by James. Mercy shook her head and started looking for the snitch. She flew around, scanning for something shiny.

Charlie was standing next to his roommates in the stands. Somehow, they had meandered their way to the top row of the stands, the best seats. Probably had something to do with Sirius tossing a dungbomb up there the week before. Of course the smell was barely noticeable now, but still no one really wanted to sit there; hence the standing.

The game had gotten off to a good start, the Gryffindors had taken an early lead and Oakley had stopped both of the shots the Slytherins had taken making the score 30-0. Unfortunately, the Slytherins took this as an opportunity to push and shove and play as dirty as they possibly could without provoking the wrath of Madam Hootch.

Charlie saw the Slytherin captain point one of her beaters at Oakley, and he wasn't the only one.

"What's Vanity doing?" Peter asked, looking over at Sirius, who was thoughtful.

"She's not even trying to get the quaffle back." Remus said.

Their question was answered quickly, with the loud crack of the Slytherin beaters bat. A bludger hurtled toward the unsuspecting keeper, who took the hit directly in the stomach. Oakley fell off her broom, but managed to cling to the hoop with one arm.

The Gryffindors in the stands all yelled in protest, there was a swift whistle from Madam Hootch calling the Slytherins on a foul. Trina called a time out. Charlie watched in horror as Oakley clang desperately to the hoop. Justin flew over to her quickly and helped her onto his broom and safely got her to the ground.

Ruby's commentary drifted over the stands. "And Captain Macintosh calls a well-timed time out. Milova looks to be winded, but alright. There will be a penalty shot for the Gryffindors because an unprovoked attack on the keeper when the quaffle was well out of shooting range. We shall see what happens next."

Charlie peered down at the cluster of Gryffindors on the field. Trina was talking to the team, Oakley was massaging her stomach, and Mercy was plainly only half listening as she had her back to the group looking around the field.

Madam Hootch blew her whistle and the team took off in the air, regaining their positions on the field. James rose to the air to take the penalty shot and sank it easily past the keeper. Charlie watched in disbelief as Oakley took her place in front of the hoops.

"She's still going," Pete said, and Sirius nodded.

"Of course she is, Milova's not going to sit out after all that. We wouldn't hear the end of it." Sirius said.

Charlie looked at her, remembering their conversation that morning. Trust her judgment, huh? He swallowed hard, trying to get rid of the lump in his throat, and he instead focused on Mercy. Mercy was darting above the pitch, looking for that elusive snitch with newfound urgency.

The game progressed for another hour or so, and the Gryffindor chasers were dominating play. The score had now become 110- 0. The Slytherins hadn't managed to hold onto the quaffle for long enough to get into scoring range because of Trina's uncanny ability to swipe the maroon ball out of their possession. Oakley was shutting out the few shots that came from the green team.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, one of the Slytherin beaters swooped toward Oakley. She had just caught a tricky shot from Vanity and was looking downfield to dropkick it to James, when again a bludger came hurtling. With a sickening thud, the bludger struck Oakley's shoulder. She yelled as she dropped the quaffle, where another Slytherin caught it and swiftly tossed it into an unguarded ring.

Charlie groaned, but Oakley shook off Trina, probably insisting she would be fine. Remus began talking hurriedly. "Hey, guys look at the seekers."

The boys looked at Mercy and the Slytherin seeker who had both taken into a steep dive. They were shoulder to shoulder, bumping and pushing each other's elbows, and both pulled out of the dive barely avoiding crashing into the ground.

"The snitch has been spotted! Both seekers have caught on and the chase has begun!" Ruby shouted. The cheering in the pitch had given way to an eerie silence as the crowd followed the seekers. Charlie watched them swoop and hurtle around the Slytherin hoops, Mercy ducked under a bludger but the Slytherin seeker wasn't as lucky having to swerve away to dodge it. Mercy had taken a small lead and hurtled upwards with the golden snitch spinning on a dime and with a quick grab, snatched it right out of the air.

"Baines got the snitch, Gryffindor wins 260- 10!" Ruby shouted over the screams and yells of the Gryffindor side of the field and boos of the Slytherins. The Gryffindors swooped together into a group huddle around Mercy and they drifted in a scarlet horde to the ground. Charlie yelled alongside his roommates, but slowly stopped yelling as an unusual sight caught his eye. The Slytherin seeker approached Mercy, and they began to talk. Which Charlie found odd, didn't he just lose the match?

There was a shout down the pitch, and a bludger came hurtling toward the players gathered on the field. It came hurtling too fast for anyone to react properly, its chosen target: Mercy. Justin ran after it but he didn't get to her in time. Right before it hit her; the Slytherin seeker pushed Mercy aside and took a bludger to the head.

**Please, please, PLEASE! If you have time, shoot me a Review! they are exceedingly helpful :)**


	21. Chapter 21- Sure You Can Handle It?

**Author's Note**

**Hello Faithful Readers! I know I am usually better at updating early but I had a late night involving baking, chipping caramel of a pot, finding dragonballs to save the real life Destiny Flowers and I had to find my keys and wallet (which is pretty much my life right now). By the grace of the big man upstairs, it was found and I was able to actually go home... albeit like 2:30 in the morning. So I'm cutting myself some slack.  
**

**Disclaimer- Still Not JK Rowling, So I still don't own Harry, His Parents their school chums, their world, or their problems. **

**On With the Story**

Chapter 21-

Mercy lay on the ground in shock; it felt like her arm had ripped open. Her vision was blurred for a moment with tears but she blinked several times until they cleared again. She made out a green figure on the ground, holding his head. It was the Slytherin she had just met, Blake's friend Dez Flowers.

Oakley crouched next to her. "Merce, hey Mercy are you alright?" She asked urgently, Mercy pushed herself up, and rubbed at one of her eyes but only grunted in response. She instead, focused her attention on Dez, who grinned cheekily at her.

"Rough game Quidditch, eh?" He slurred, and Mercy rolled her eyes and smirked back.

"Sure you can handle it?" She said as she smiled playfully. But her smile slipped off her face as quickly as it came. Her arm felt warm, and there she felt a dull throb. She whispered to Oakley, "It reopened, I should go."

Oakley nodded, and addressed Dez, "What say you to a trip to the Hospital Wing to get some ice, good sir knight?"

He started to shake his head to refuse, but a grumpy Madam Hootch shot him an evil glare and he rolled his eyes. "Not much of a choice, here."

Oakley, Merce, and Dez made their way from the pitch to the hospital wing, where the Madam Pomfrey greeted them with her usual look of disapproval and had all three sit down in a row of chairs. After listening to Mercy, Oakley, and Dez, she forced an ice pack on Oakley's shoulder and told Dez to lay down on one of the beds. Dez tried to protest, but after receiving an evil glare he rolled his eyes and compromised by sitting on the bed. She then began to take the wrap off Mercy's arm which was slowly beginning to seep blood through the excessive amount of gauze.

Mercy could feel Dez's gaze, and made brief eye contact with him. She tried to give him a smile but it turned into an exasperated grin. He made a face back.

Mercy cringed despite Madam Pomfrey's gentle touch and winced again as the dittany sewed her arm together again. The cut looked better, nearly as good as it did that morning, bet she still got reprimanded by Madam Pomfrey.

"What did I tell you to do, Miss Baines? You were to come to me immediately if it opened again." Many students would sweat under the death stare of Madam Pomfrey but Mercy was remarkably calm, though slightly uncomfortable.

"Ma'am, I came to you as soon as I could after it happened, I promise. I was fine until that bludger after the match decided to come after me." She said meekly.

Madam Pomfrey tsked, but didn't push the matter further. She moved on to Oakley, checking her shoulder and told her it would simply bruise.

"More like bruise her ego," Mercy muttered, extracting a grin from Oakley. Oakley was told she was free to go, but she said she'd wait for Mercy.

The matron then moved on to Dez who had developed a lump on the side of his head and a large headache. Madam Pomfrey, however, declared he showed no other obvious signs of concussion. She told him to take it easy for a while and asked him to stay put, to which he grudgingly agreed. He lay down on the bed and stared broodingly at the ceiling.

Madam Pomfrey wrapped Mercy's arm in gauze again. As she did so she said, "Miss Baines, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to stay off of brooms until your arm is no longer at risk. And I mean fully healed."

Mercy's mouth opened in protest, "But I have Quid-" she began, but the matron's face effectively cut her off. She grumbled under her breath as she was given permission to leave.

At the door there was a light knock and Blake stepped into view still decked out in red from the match.

"Yes dear?" Madam Pomfrey asked as she entered the wing.

"I just stopped by to check on these three," She said as she walked over to Dez's bed and where Mercy and Oakley were seated.

"Miss Baines and Miss Milova can leave, but you may keep Mr. Flower company, provided he doesn't object." Madam Pomfrey said.

But Dez didn't, exhibited in how his face lit up when Blake took an unoccupied chair next to him. Mercy and Oakley rose to their feet and stood opposite Dez and Blake.

"Good match you two." Blake said.

"Thanks Blake. We have to go meet Charlie soon, otherwise we would definitely stay and chat," Mercy said. She hoped that he wasn't too worried about them. He had probably been pulling his hair out every time Oakley took those bludgers.

"Why did you play with your arm like that?" Dez asked, looking to Mercy. Mercy glanced over to Blake who rolled her eyes and shrugged.

"I dunno. I just… well, wanted to play. And besides, we didn't really have time to break in a reserve." She said.

Dez shook his head. "You know, you could've made yourself worse. Even if your team needed you, they also need you in top shape; which means you ought to not put yourself into a worse position."

Mercy kitted her brow. "I suppose that's true, but we might have lost the match." She said.

"Well, it's only a game after all." He said, closing his eyes.

"Why did you…" Mercy began, but stopped. Dez opened one of his eyes.

"Why'd I what?" He said, somewhat suspiciously.

"I dunno, push me. Why didn't you get yourself out of the way?" Mercy asked uncomfortably. The second she had said it, she regretted asking.

"Are you mad or something?" Dez asked. Mercy shook her head hurriedly.

"No no, I just…" She struggled to find words that wouldn't be taking the wrong way.

"You were just wondering why I bothered, huh?" He said.

"That's not exactly…" She trailed off. Well, it was her question… she just didn't want to phrase it like that.

Dez looked at her nonplussed. "Well I couldn't exactly just stand there and watch you take a bludger to the head. What kind of a person do you think I am?"

Mercy looked down. She hardly knew this guy. And he was a Slytherin… but maybe she put too much stock into the house stereotypes. "I know, I just feel bad, that's all." She and Dez were quiet. Oakley looked uncomfortable but Blake appeared to be holding back a smile. Mercy couldn't figure out what was so funny, but then she remembered something. "I never actually said thank you, did I?" She said.

"Don't worry about it." Dez said, grinning crookedly. Mercy smiled back.

Oakley cleared her throat. "We really ought to go; it was nice to meet you." She said, inclining her head slightly to Dez, who nodded in response closing his eyes again.

"I'll see ya later, in the dorm." Blake said.

Mercy and Oakley left the wing, heading first to their dorms to change, dodging their overly excited housemates who were quick to congratulate them.

Mercy was suddenly feeling like dragging her feet and collapsing in bed. She was no longer in the mood to face whatever problems Charlie was having at home.

But she had to. She had promised after all. She just wished she wasn't so fucking tired… She and Oakley left the common room, dodging the beginnings of what looked like it would be a party. Mercy was not feeling it though… sleep was beckoning stronger than the allure of a good Gryffindor celebration.

Mercy stopped walking abruptly. "Holy shit Oakley! It's Saturday!" She yelled. Oh Merlin, why!?

Oakley stopped and turned to look at her. "It's been Saturday all day. And you might not want to be shouting profanities in the corridor."

"That means tomorrow is Sunday!" She said running her hands through her hair worriedly.

"I'm glad you have figured out how weekends work. Took you long enough." Mercy wasn't amused by the sarcasm in Oakley's voice.

"Oakley I might have a date tomorrow!" Her stomach boiled up with more butterflies than it did before the Quidditch match.

"Wha d'ya mean _might_? Do you or don't you?" Oakley asked.

"Well he…" She started but Oakley cut over her.

"He is Remus, right?" Oakley asked.

"Yes. But we are supposed to meet up after lunch tomorrow. I wanted to ask you if that meant this is a date or just hanging out kind of thing. But I don't know what to wear and- and what to say..." Mercy spilled, barely taking time to breathe.

"Mercy calm down. This isn't that big of a deal." Oakley had a baffled expression on her face, but Mercy didn't think she was taking this seriously enough.

"This is a HUGE DEAL!" Mercy screeched.

"Calm down Miss Pterodactyl. You've jumped off a broom to catch a shiny flying ball, no problem. But heaven forbid you go out and talk to a boy." Oakley said shaking her head. "We'll go take care of Charlie but after that is done, we can deal with this."

Mercy took a deep breathe. "Sorry. I just entered full on panic mode."

"One thing at a time. Come on, we really ought to get to the Garden. Char is waiting." Oakley said, and they hurried off down the Staircases.

**Alright, You know the drill at this point. This is where I ask for reviews and most of you just overlook this request... So here is a special thank you for those who have shot me a review, you guys are HEROES. You're my incentive to keep writing and even though I'm really really busy, I will keep updating as promised ;)**


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